Flatpicking Essentials Volume 2:
Learning How To Solo — Carter Style and Beyond Written by Flatpicking Guitar Magazine Editor
Dan Miller Flatpicking Essentials Volume 2: Learning How To Solo, Carter Style and Beyond
i
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Flatpicking Essentials Volume 2: Learning How To Solo, Carter Style and Beyond
Table of Contents Introduction Arranging Solos for Vocal Tunes (Overview) Step One: Select a Song Step Two: Find the Chords Step Three: Find the Melody (“You Are My Sunshine” Examples) Step Four: Basic Carter Style Step Five: Simplify the Melody (“You Are My Sunshine” Examples) Practicing the Steps; “Will The Circle Be Unbroken” “She’ll Be Coming Around the Mountain” Improvisation “Nine Pound Hammer” “Jesse James” “Red River Valley” “Old Joe Clark” Waltz Time “Down in the Valley” “Amazing Grace”
v 1 7 8 10 15 17
Practice with Carter Style “Jimmy Brown the Newsboy” “Grandfather’s Clock” “Old Spinning Wheel” “Uncloudy Day” “Home Sweet Home” “John Hardy” “John Henry” “Buffalo Gals” “Lonesome Road Blues” “Wildwood Flower” “Cripple Creek” “Banks of the Ohio” “East Virginia Blues” “Keep On The Sunny Side” “Bury Me Beneath the Willow” “Yellow Rose of Texas”
40 41 42 44 46 48 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 60 61
Tremolo “Twinkle, Twinkle Tremolo” Tremolo Exercise “You Are My Sunshine” Tremolo “Worried Man Blues” Tremolo “Bury Me Beneath the Willow” Tremolo “You Are My Sunshine” Spiced-up Tremolo “Boogie-Woogie Blues”
62 62 63 64 65 66 67 68
Flatpicking Essentials Volume 2: Learning How To Solo, Carter Style and Beyond
20 25 27 29 30 33 34 36 38 39
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Table of Contents (con’t) Double Stops “Bile the Cabbage Down” Double Stops Finding Double Stops in Chord Shapes “You Are My Sunshine” Double Stops “Buffalo Gals” Double Stops “Cripple Creek” Double Stops “Wildwood Flower” Double Stops “Worried Man Blues” Double Stops “Streets of Loredo” Double Stops
69 69 70 71 72 72 73 74 75
Crosspicking Crosspicking Patterns Crosspicking Exercise “Banks of the Ohio” Crosspicking “Wildwood Flower” Crosspicking “Home Sweet Home” Crosspicking “Oh, Susanna” Crosspicking Alternate Crosspicking Patterns
76 76 77 78 79 80 81 82
Pioneer Techniques Summary
83
Neighboring Notes, Scale Runs, and Drones Clarence White Excerpt “Salty Dog Blues” Doc Watson Excerpts and Drone Strings “She’ll Be Coming Around the Mountain” “Buffalo Gals” “Wabash Cannonball” “You Are My Sunshine”
84 84 85 86 87 88 89 90
Licks and Soloing C and G Licks “Jimmy Brown the Newsboy” “The Crawdad Song” “Nine Pound Hammer” “Storms Are On The Ocean” “Old Spinning Wheel”
92 93 94 95 96 97 98
Fiddle Tunes and Carter Style “Arkansas Traveler” “Red Wing”
102 103 107
Looking Forward
108
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Flatpicking Essentials Volume 2: Learning How To Solo, Carter Style and Beyond
Introduction Welcome to Flatpicking Essentials, Volume 2: Learning to Solo—Carter Style and Beyond! I hope that you were able to spend a lot of time practicing the bass runs, fill licks, and strum patterns that you were presented with in Volume 1 of this course because you are going to use them all here. I have always thought that if a guitar student had a solid foundation in playing rhythm and working with bass runs and rhythm fill licks, that a very natural progression when stepping from rhythm playing to lead playing would be the Carter style of lead playing. In the Carter style you are executing the same right and left hand techniques that you learned and practiced in Volume 1 when you were working with bass runs and strums. The only difference is that in the Carter style the bass runs will be replaced by a melody line. So, if you gained a good level of skill and experience in the execution of bass runs and strums while working with Volume 1, you are ready to move on and play Carter style lead. But Carter style lead is not where this book ends! Here in Volume 2 we are going to gain a solid lead guitar foundation with the Carter style, but then we are going to move on from there in an effort to add more spice and interest to your lead guitar work. At first you will learn to add the techniques that you learned in Volume 1—such as bass runs, fill licks, hammer-ons, pulls, alternate strum patterns, and slides—to basic Carter style arrangements. After you have gained a good feel for using those techniques in conjunction with Carter style, we will then start to add new lead guitar techniques one at a time. The first few new techniques that you will learn—tremolo, double stops, and crosspicking—are techniques that were developed in roots, bluegrass, and early country music by the pioneers of lead guitar playing in those genres. After you have digested those techniques we will move on to take a look at some of the techniques that became more prevalent during the “heroes era.” These techniques include the use of neighboring notes, scale runs, and drones. Towards the end of the book we will also start to look at the use of a few common flatpicking phrases, or licks, and how you might add those to your Carter style solos in order to develop a more diverse and interesting arrangements. As with the material in Volume 1, I strongly suggest that you work to come up with your own arrangements and your own way of using the techniques that I have
presented here. The more time that you spend trying to develop your own unique and creative ways to use all of the techniques that I present in this volume, the easier it is going to be for you to learn how to arrange your own solos and improvise. On the next page I will begin to lay out a step-by-step method that is designed to teach you how to arrange your own solo to any song that you may hear without the use of a book, magazine, or video. That might seem like a monumental task right now, especially if you’ve never done it before. However, after working with the material that is presented in this volume I think that you will feel differently. You will have the tools, the techniques, a method, and the confidence. Good luck! If you have any questions as you work through this book, please feel free to contact me at: dan@flatpick. com. Please put “Flatpicking Essentials” in the subject line so that I can easily identify your email. A Note on the Arrangements in the Book: In arranging the guitar solos for certain sections of this book I over-used the new technique that is being presented in that section in order to give you more practice with a given technique. Those solos should be practiced with this in mind. I suggest that you practice the solos in the sections on tremolo, double stops, and crosspicking in order to get a good feel for these techniques, but then go back and learn how to “mix and match” these techniques when creating your own arrangements, as I have done with the solos that appear later in the book. Have fun!
Flatpicking Essentials Volume 2: Learning How To Solo, Carter Style and Beyond
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Arranging Solos for Vocal Tunes Guitar players who have learned to play the flatpick style usually spend the majority of their time and effort learning to play fiddle tunes. Many times this learning process involves memorizing someone else’s arrangement from a book, magazine, or instructional video. There is nothing wrong with that. It is a fine way to build a repertoire of tunes that you can play at your local jam session or festival, or with a picking buddy who knows the same tunes. However, at some point in time you are going to want to learn how to solo on songs that you have not memorized, songs that you can’t find tab for, or even songs that have never heard before. You are going to learn how to do that here. Beginning players watch more advanced pickers at a jam sessions take solos on song after song that they may have never heard before and wonder “how do they do that!?” The answer is that those players have developed a skill that you too can develop and in this course I am going to help you learn how to develop that skill, and we are going to start right away. In this volume of the Flatpicking Essentials course we will focus on techniques that will help you build your own solos to vocal tunes. Then in the next volume we are going to do the same thing with fiddle tunes. The basic steps that we will follow in this volume are as follows: 1) Select a Song 2) Learn the Chord Progression 3) Learn the Basic Melody! 4) Simplify the Melody 5) Find the Carter Style Arrangement 6) Embellish the Carter Style Arrangement Before we get into any examples, let me talk about each of these steps in more detail so that you can get an idea about how this process works before we put our hands on the guitar and start to practice these steps.
Step 1—Select a Song
While this step is the obvious place to start, I want to say that I feel that a very important element of this first step to consider is the type of song that you select, especially when you are first learning to create your own guitar solos to songs. The rule of thumb in this regard is Keep it Simple! In fact, that rule applies to everything that you do. Start simply and slowly, then gradually move forward. If you bite off more than you can chew at first, or if you try to tackle something that
is too far beyond your current skill level, you are going to get frustrated. That frustration may appear right away because you will not feel like you are making enough progress, or that frustration will show up later when you realize that you have reached a plateau in your playing due to the fact that you skipped over some important fundamentals and have holes in your knowledge or technical skill. These holes will prevent you from moving forward unless you back track and fill them in. So, my advice is to keep it simple and progress forward in small incremental steps. Keeping it simple in regard to selecting a song means that you select a simple song that you have known your entire life. You may feel that you are above nursery rhymes like “Twinkle Little Star” or simple old songs like “You Are My Sunshine,” however, this is the type of material that you should focus on in the beginning because the chord progression is usually simple, the melody is simple, it is a melody that you can sing, and it is a melody that you have probably known your whole life. Also, pick a song that has words that you know by heart. To recap, here are the guidelines that you should use when picking a new song to use when learning a new skill or technique (I will discuss each of these step briefly in this section and then we will go through each step in greater detail, with examples, in the section that follows): 1) Pick a simple song. This means that the song has a simple chord progression and has a melody that stays in the range of a major scale in one octave. Songs like “Twinkle Little Star” and “You Are My Sunshine” use a total of three chords (I, IV, and V). They also each contain a total of only six different notes and all of those notes stay in the range of one octave in the major scale. When you begin to learn how to pick out melodies by ear on your guitar you are going to learn how to do it faster and you will gain more confidence in your abilities if you only have six notes to choose from and you know that all of those notes reside in the major scale in one octave. If you try to pick out a song that has a more complex melody before you have developed your ear to the degree that you can find that melody easily, you are going to get frustrated.
Flatpicking Essentials Volume 2: Learning How To Solo, Carter Style and Beyond
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2) Pick a song that you know by heart. If you pick a song that you don’t know very well you may not be exactly sure of how the melody goes and you may become frustrated during steps two (learning the chord progression) and three (learning the basic melody). Keep in mind, in this process you are not going to learn the chord progression or melody from a book. You are going to sing or hum the song and find it by ear. In the early stages of developing this skill it helps if you know that song very well. 3) Pick a song that you can sing. Nine times out of ten a vocal song is going to have a simpler, less dense melody than an instrumental tune. When you can sing the words to a song the chords and melody are easier to find on the guitar and easier to remember. So, start easy by finding simple songs that you can sing.
Step 2—Learn the Chord Progression
Unfortunately this is a critical step that many players skip over until after they have learned to play a lead arrangement of the song. However, learning the chord progression first will always help when it is time to learn the melody and create a lead arrangement. The chord progression provides the underlying structure to the melody. If the melody is analogous to the frame that holds up the walls of a house, the chord progression is the concrete slab that supports the frame. The chord progression provides a foundation for all that is happening in the song. The melody, the words, and all of the solos that might be interpreted from the melody have the chord progression as their common base. Figuring out the chord progression will give you a road map for figuring out the melody and for your solo arrangement and/or improvisation. Arranging a solo in the context of the chord progression has another important component because there are times when a solo that is played without a strong outline of the chord progression will not make sense to a listener. Case in point: At the National Flatpicking Guitar Championship that is held in Winfield, Kansas, each year the contestants perform on stage with rhythm accompaniment. Most contestants use a rhythm guitarist, but some use a mandolin, or bass. The audience can hear the rhythm instrument, however, the judges cannot. The judges are housed in a different area so that they cannot see the contestants and the only thing that is piped into their location is the lead instrument. Judges have told me that unless the contestant outlines the chord changes in his solo 2
arrangement, the solo does not make much sense. It makes sense to the audience because the audience hears the rhythm player outlining the chord changes that the soloist is playing against. But without that underlying chord structure the solo does not make much sense, unless the solo arrangement itself strongly implies the chord progression. On a similar note, here is what David Grier had to say in an FGM Podcast interview regarding the different between solo flatpicking and flatpicking with accompaniment: “When I play with other people in a group setting, or a band, or just a couple of other guitar players, I do play differently than I do when I’m playing by myself. Obviously, when other players are playing behind you they are playing the chords behind the lead that you are playing and so you don’t have to outline what chords are being played behind you because they are doing that. So you can concentrate more on single strings, whereas when I’m playing by myself I tend to try to outline the chords so when I’m playing people have a reference... ‘Oh, he is doing that, over that chord. Oh, that is a G chord there. I wouldn’t have known’ (laughs).” All that in order to say, learn and memorize the chords of the song first, and later also learn how to make the chord progression prominent in your arrangement if you are not playing with rhythmic accompaniment from one or more other instruments. If you don’t learn the chords before you learn the melody or a solo arrangement, you will not have the underlying structure of the song in your mind as you are learning the melody or arranging a solo. You need to lay the foundation before you build the house!
Step 3— Learn the Melody
Once again, this is a step that may seem obvious, but it is a step that many people skip when they learn a new song from a book, magazine, or video. What most people learn when they learn how to play a new song on their guitar is someone else’s arrangement, which translates to someone else’s interpretation of the melody, plus their added embellishments. Do not learn someone else’s arrangement first. I cannot emphasize this point enough. The first thing you should do when you approach a new song is learn the basic melody and nothing else. Learn only the melody notes. Again, this is easiest to do if you take a vocal song, sing it, and find the notes that go along with the words that you are singing. So, an interim step between learning the chords and learning the melody on your guitar would be
Flatpicking Essentials Volume 2: Learning How To Solo, Carter Style and Beyond
to memorize the words and sing the song while playing through the chord progression. The more time that you spend singing the melody and playing the chords, the easier it is going to be for you to find the melody and then arrange your solo. Finding the melody is something that you are going to do by ear. If you have not had much practice, or success, with finding notes on your guitar by ear, don’t worry. You are going to have plenty of practice in this volume and we are going to work with simple melodies that will not be difficult to find. By the end of this volume you will have developed a degree of confidence in your ability to find melodies by ear. Once you find the basic melody, the next critical step is to work to etch it into your brain and under your fingers. You want to work with that melody until you can play it in your sleep, while you talk with other people, or while you are watching TV...you want that melody to become second nature before you try to embellish it, add to it, modify it, or do anything else. When I interviewed Richard Bennett for Flatpicking Guitar Magazine, he said that he made his students play only the melody until they got “melody burnout.” I totally agree with this idea. The melody is the launching point for all of your solo arrangements and improvisations, if you don’t have that melody ingrained into your “muscle memory” you are inevitably going to get lost during a solo and not be able to find your way back. The better you know that melody, the more confident you are going to be when you step away from it in a solo or improvisation and the easier it will be to get back to it if you get lost. Tasteful players all say “Melody is King!” and it is true. Many students will complain that just playing the simple melody is boring and they will want to move on once they have it memorized in their head. But, until it is memorized in your muscles and down to your bones, you don’t really have it! If you are bored playing the melody of one song over and over in the same spot, then play it in a different octave, at a different place on the fingerboard, or in a different key. Play it in all 12 keys! Just continue to play it until you could do it in your sleep. Then you will be ready to move on and add to it. If you don’t believe me, take one song as an experiment. Choose one song, learn its simple melody and just play that melody over and over. Use it as your warm up, use that melody to work on other technical aspects of your playing like timing and tone and note clarity. Just continue to play that simple melody to
that one song over and over for five to ten minutes everyday. Later, when you start working on arranging and improvising I guarantee that the song you worked with as your “simple melody song” will be the song that is easiest for you to work with in terms of creating new arrangements and improvisations. Once you prove that to yourself, you too will be convinced regarding the “melody burn out” method and apply it to every new song that you learn. You may be thinking, “If Dan is suggesting that I play just the melody over and over before I can play a more complex arrangement, then what about these guys who can learn a new song in a jam session and take a phenomenal solo right away.” Good question! And my answer is, you have to learn to walk before you can learn to run. Those guys have spent so much time learning songs and playing them on their guitar that they are able to process a melody and find it, and embellishments, on their guitar right away. You will eventually get there too. Taking it step-by-step and working slowly through these steps in the beginning is the way to get there. Eventually you will be able to process the steps faster and faster and you too will be able to learn a song and create a solo spontaneously in real time. However, if you skip steps or don’t spend enough time with each step, it will be more difficult for you to reach that final goal.
4—Basic Carter Style Arrangement
The flatpicking technique that has come to be known as “Carter Style” was adapted from the playing of Mother Maybelle Carter. Although Maybelle used a thumb pick on the downstrokes, followed by a strum with her fingers, the general technique is easily adapted to the flatpick. The technique is exactly that same as the bass-note/strum technique that you practiced extensively in Volume 1, however, we are going to replace the bass line with a melody line. Therefore, the Carter technique consists of playing the melody notes on the lower register strings and inserting a rhythmic strum between melody notes when there is adequate space (time-wise) to do so. Maybelle Carter didn’t have a rhythm section when she played and sang with her sister Sarah and her brother-in-law A. P. Carter. So when she took a guitar solo, she had to keep a rhythmic strumming pattern going while she played the melody, otherwise the overall sound would have lacked a rhythmic drive and would have sounded too sparse.
Flatpicking Essentials Volume 2: Learning How To Solo, Carter Style and Beyond
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At the top of this page I have written out three examples from the first line of the song “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.” Example 1 is the melody, Example 2 is a simplified melody and Example 3 is the simplified melody with rhythmic strums inserted between the melody notes. Take a look at Example 3. If you play through these four measures, you will find that even though some of the melody notes have been “removed,” you still hear the melody of the song. You also get a fuller sound than just playing the melody line of Example 1 because in Example 3 the chords of the song are identifiable and thus your ear can follow the chord progression and you also have a more perceivable rhythmic movement. Also, if you think about it, I didn’t really “remove” the melody notes in Example 3 because those notes are contained in the chordal strum. They just are not played as single notes. Example 3 is a simple example of what I mean when I say “Carter style.” Having studied Volume 1 of this series, you should now be very familiar with playing bass lines in conjunction with rhythmic strums. The only thing different here is that we are substituting the bass line with the melody 4
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line and thus playing the melody of the song. So, in one easy step, you’ve become a soloist! The main reason that I had you play so many bass-line/strum examples in Volume 1 is so that you would be ready for Carter style lead playing. My hope is that you will find Carter style playing to be a very easy and natural way to begin to play lead solos after having studied bass-line/strum rhythm playing in Volume 1. Play through Example 1 above again. Then play Example 3. Example 1 sounds pretty plain and simple. It sounds like something is lacking. Example 3 sounds full and rhythmic; and it sounds like something that you could actually play for people even if you don’t have anyone accompanying you because you have melody, chords, and a defined rhythm. In Volume 1 when I talked about the “history of flatpicking” I said that flatpicking was an ensemble style due to the fact that it was difficult to provide your own accompaniment while also playing lead lines. Fiddle tune flatpicking, the way most people learn it, doesn’t sound too great without a rhythm section. However, Carter style lead playing with a flatpick can sound full and interesting because it has chords and rhythm.
Flatpicking Essentials Volume 2: Learning How To Solo, Carter Style and Beyond
When I interviewed Charles Sawtelle for Flatpicking Guitar Magazine, he said, “If Iʼm playing around the house, or playing solo, I try to play something that people can relate to as guitar music. If you were to play ten fiddle tunes for your grandmother, for example, by the third one she would be falling asleep. The music doesnʼt make any sense to them. I prefer to play tunes that are guitar like. So I will play Carter Family tunes like “Little Moses” or “Wildwood Flower,” something that can be understood. Iʼd play some kind of tune that has rhythmic structure to it. It is cool to play that other stuff if you have a band. But when you are by yourself, it can get really boring for everyone, real quick.” There are many reasons to start learning your first solo arrangement of any tune as a Carter style arrangement. First, it is usually going to be the simplest and easiest arrangement of that tune that you will ever learn. And simple is always good when you are starting anything! Next, as mentioned above, the Carter style arrangement sounds fuller and more rhythmic when you play it in a solo setting. I don’t know how many times I’ve been with friends or family and they’ve asked if I could play my guitar for them. When all I knew was a bunch of fiddle tunes I was very reluctant because without back up I knew it wouldn’t sound like much. Now when people ask me to play I always I follow two rules: (1) play using the Carter style technique, and (2) play a song that they are going to know. I learned the second rule from experience. If you choose to play a bluegrass standard and the person doesn’t know bluegrass you don’t get quite as good as a reaction as you do when you play something that they know by heart. If they recognize it, they usually enjoy it more because they have a reference. This is one of the reasons that I have selected many songs for this volume that everybody knows. I want you to learn songs that you have known for your whole life so that you know the melody inside and out, and I also want you to know those songs so that you can play them and your non-bluegrass friends and family will recognize what you are playing! Don’t think that because you are playing a simple old song that it is going to sound dull and be boring to play. The degree of dull and boring is going to be up to you. If you’ve ever heard David Grier render “Michael Row Your Boat Ashore” you’ll know what I mean. David takes that simple song and makes it sound incredibly complex as a solo guitar piece while still maintaining a solid melody line. That is what you are going to start to learn how to do in this volume of the course, and why
I’ve titled it “Carter Style and Beyond.” The Carter style is just our starting place. The next reason why Carter style is a good place to start is because by playing the Carter style arrangement over and over again, you are going to get an innate sense of how the melody and chord progression work and sound together, both mentally and physically. You will be hearing both the melody and the chord progression in your head and executing them together with your hands. This will inform your playing and give you a sense of how the melody lays on the chord progression. If you are called on to play this song solo, you will already know an arrangement that sounds best in that setting. Then if you are later called upon to take solo when you are playing with other musicians, you will be able to easily adapt to that situation and play a solo that is appropriate to that setting. Most of the solos that you learn from tab books are written for the soloist who is playing with a band. If you copy and memorize that arrangement, it is not necessarily going to sound good in a solo setting or when you are playing in a duo with a fiddle player or banjo player. By learning the Carter style arrangement first you can build on that as a foundation and have an easier time coming up with variations.
Step 5— Simplify the Melody
This is another step that many people miss, or don’t think much about. When you work to learn the melody of a song you will first sing the tune and then find those notes on the guitar. The notes that you find on your guitar will correspond with the notes that you are singing. This process gives you the accurate and complete melody of the song. However, if you study those notes and pay attention to their placement in the song, and the meaning they give to the melodic line, you will discover that some of those melody notes play more of a defining role that others. We can call these notes the “stable” melody notes. In other words, some melody notes are more important to defining the song than others. Many times those notes that are not so important are melody notes that are repeated or notes that transition or lead to the stable notes. Usually the most stable notes are the notes of the chord (1st, 3rd, or 5th tones of the scale). Notes that may not be so important to the melody are sustaining notes (notes that repeat the previous note), transition notes (notes outside the chord that are leading to chord notes) or leading tones (the 7th note of the scale). Remember, these are simply rules of thumb. There can certainly be stable, or
Flatpicking Essentials Volume 2: Learning How To Solo, Carter Style and Beyond
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defining notes, that are not in the chord. However, it is those not-so-stable notes that may be the first that you can examine and decide if you might be able to leave out and still have the melody represented. As an example of this concept, look again at the first four measures of “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” that I’ve wrote out on page 4. In the first line, Example 1, I’ve written the melody as it is sung. However, on the second line (Example 2) I’ve simplified the melody by removing the repeated notes. Play through both. Although the second line is not the exact melody, you can certainly still recognize the song even with about half of the melody notes missing. Now you may be wondering, “Why do I want to simplify the melody? I have a hard enough time filling in those gaps between melody notes. Now you want me to create bigger gaps!” Yes! First of all, learning how to recognize which of the melody notes really define the melody will help you later when you start to arrange and improvise because you will want to state the melody so that listeners can recognize the song, but you’ll also want to leave yourself as much room for your own unique, creative interpretation as possible. That may be hard for you to fathom right now, but you’ll learn how to do that in this book So, learning how to identify and use the fewest number of notes of the melody, while still strongly defining the melody, will serve you well in that regard. Another reason that you learn how to simplify the melody to a song has to do with tempo. If you find yourself in a jam session and the musicians are playing at a tempo that is beyond your skill level, even if you are simply playing the melody and not throwing in other embellishments, then your next step to try in an effort to keep up is to simplify the melody and only play the fewest number of notes possible. If you are a beginner and have not built up speed and you step into a jam with a banjo player who likes to play everything in overdrive, simplify your melody, play less notes, and you may be able to keep up. We will talk about this technique more in Volume 3 when we address playing fast fiddle tunes. A third reason that you want to learn how to identify the most important melody notes is to leave yourself room to provide your own rhythmic accompaniment if you are playing solo, or of you are playing in a band that does not have a rhythm section. We will be learning, and applying, this skill right away in this volume by learning how to play Carter Style leads. 6
Step 6—Embellish Arrangement
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Once you learn how to play the basic Carter style arrangement of a song (Step 4), the next step is to “supercharge it” a la Norman Blake or David Grier. Norman and David are both masters at creating a full sounding solo flatpicking guitar arrangement. In this volume I am going to give you tools and techniques that you can use to supercharge your Carter style arrangement so that you can learn to develop interesting solos to vocal songs that will sound full without rhythm accompaniment. In Volume 3, when we discuss instrumental tunes and fiddle tune picking, we will practice techniques that will help you learn how to solo when you are with a band and don’t have to worry about providing your own rhythm. But in this volume I want you to feel comfortable in knowing that you can sound good all by yourself. Let’s face it, unless you are in a band, you are probably playing by yourself most of the time. So why not learn how to develop a full sound in that setting before learning how to apply the techniques that sound good with the full band? Unfortunately, most flatpickers learn fiddle tunes first. As I stated in Volume 1, I think that is a backwards way of learning. I feel that if you first learn how to solo on vocal tunes and learn how to sound good without accompaniment, then it will be easy to later learn fiddle tune flatpicking and how to play in the band setting. One of the hardest things for flatpickers who learn fiddle tune flatpicking first to learn is how to solo on vocal tunes (because they don’t know how to fill in the longer pauses between melody notes) and to learn how to play solo guitar (because they haven’t learned how to provide both melodic and harmonic content at the same time). We’ll fix that here because we are going to study how to solo on vocal songs and play solo guitar first, then we will take a look at fiddle tunes. The techniques that we will study in this volume that we will add to the basic Carter style include: tremelo, double stops, crosspicking, using scale runs and neighboring notes, adding bass runs, varying strum patterns, and using drone strings. Also, as in the last volume, we will also add alternate strum patterns, hammer-ons, pull-offs, and slides. Now that you have an idea of what steps we will be taking to create solos in this volume, let’s go ahead and get started!
Flatpicking Essentials Volume 2: Learning How To Solo, Carter Style and Beyond
Step One: Select a Song As I stated previously, whenever you are learning something new, start with the simplest and easiest concept or idea and build slowly. If you always keep that concept as a rule of thumb, then you will continually move forward without having any gaps in your skill or knowledge. Therefore, I suggest that you have a stable of simple tunes that you go back to anytime you are trying to learn a new concept or practice an unfamiliar technique. Keeping this “Keep It Simple” concept in mind, and knowing that steps two and three of the process we will be working with in this book are to first find the chords and then find the melody, our goal will be to select a song that has just 2 or 3 chords and only a handful of melody notes. In order to select a song, I suggest that you go back to the simplest songs you know. Those that you learned to sing back in kindergarden or elementary school. Start with something like “Mary Had a Little Lamb.” That song only has 2 chords and only 4 unique melody notes. In the key of C the chords are the I chord and the V chord (C and G). The four notes used in the melody are C, D, E, and G. All four of those notes reside in the range of one octave of the C major scale (between the C note on the 3rd fret of the A string and the C note on the 1st fret of the B string). [Hint: If you are going to give this one a try in the key of C, start with the E note at the 2nd fret of the D string corresponding to the first word of the lyrics: “Mary.” Then proceed from there.] Finding the chord progression and the melody for a song like “Mary Had A Little Lamb,” is going to be far easier than if you tried to start with a song like “Blackberry Blossom.” “Blackberry Blossom” has more chords, more melody notes, has no words, and has a more complex melody. If you are new to picking out chord progressions and melodic lines by ear, chances are that “Blackberry Blossom” is gong to frustrate you and cause you to think “I can’t do this! This is too hard!” We don’t want that to happen, so start simple. Here is a list of a few songs that you will no doubt be familiar with. All of these songs have six, or fewer, melody notes and three, or fewer, chords. 1) When the Saints Go Marching In 2) London Bridges 3) Shortnin’ Bread 4) The Alphabet Song 5) You Are My Sunshine
Here is another list of songs that have six, or fewer, melody notes and 3, or fewer, chords. While the melody notes of these songs stay within the major scale, some of the notes are lower than the low root note—meaning that if you are in the key of C, some of the melody notes will be lower in pitch than the C note on the A string. Give these a try: 1) Farmer in the Dell 2) Old MacDonald’s Farm 3) Skip to My Lou In this volume I’ve provided you with songs that are all going to be familiar to most people and fairly easy to work with. In addition to all of the songs I will present in this volume, here is a list of 40 other tunes you might want to try to work with. Pick one a day, or one a week, and see if you can find the chord progression and melody on your guitar: 1) Camptown Races 2) ‘Round the Mulberry Bush 3) Polly Put The Kettle On 4) Twinke, Twinkle, Little Star 5) Jack And Jill 6) Pease Porridge Hot 7) Yankee Doodle 8) A Tisket, A Tasket 9) Frere Jacques 10) Happy Birthday 11) Merrily We Roll Along 12) Michael Row Your Boat Ashore 13) Bicycle Built for Two 14) Good Night Ladies 15) Marines Hymn 16) Dinah, Blow Your Horn 17) Billy Boy 18) Silent Night 19) Auld Lang Syne 20) Pop Goes the Weasel 21) Beautiful Brown Eyes 22) My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean 23) Gold Watch and Chain 24) I Ain’t Gonna Work Tomorrow 25) Go Tell Aunt Rhody 26) I’ll Fly Away 27) I Saw the Light 28) Ashes of Love 29) Will You Miss Me 30) Blue Moon of Kentucky 31) Angel Band
Flatpicking Essentials Volume 2: Learning How To Solo, Carter Style and Beyond
7
32) Beautiful Dreamer 33) Greensleeves 34) My Country Tis of Thee 35) Take Me Out To The Ball Game 36) On Top of Old Smokey 37) Lavender’s Blue 38) Hard Times Come Again No More 39) Clementine 40) Cockles and Mussels Obviously, the list could go on and on and some of these will be harder than others. I provide this list to give you a rough idea about the kind of tunes that you want to work with when you are first beginning to learn the process of arranging your own solos. The main rule of thumb is to start simple. If you think these songs or too simple, or too dull, remember: There aren’t any boring songs, just boring arrangements! The level of complexity, diversity, and excitement is your challenge as the arranger or improviser. Step One and a Half: Before we move on to the next step, an intermediary step may be necessary. Step two assumes that you know the words and/or melody of the song. If you do not know the words and/or melody of the song, then you obviously are going to have to find them and memorize them before you can find the chords. You probably already know the majority of the songs that are on the list on the previous page and you will probably already know the majority of the songs that I will be presenting in this volume. However, if you do not, you should always research the song and learn the lyrics and melody. In the case of vocal tunes, learning how to sing the song will give you an idea of the simple melody. However, instrumental tunes can be trickier because if you hear someone else play the tune, you don’t know for sure if he or she is playing the simple melody or embellishing the melody. I’ll discuss what to do in that instance when we talk about instrumental numbers in the next volume. For now, let’s focus on simple vocal songs.
Step Two: Find the Chords Now that you have selected a song and know how to sing it, the next step is to choose a key and then find the chords. The execution of this step is easier to explain via audio instruction, so I’ve put a track on the audio CD 8
that describes and gives an example of the process of picking a key, singing the tune, and finding the chords. So, in just a minute I’ll have you listen to Track 01 of the audio CD that accompanies this book so that I can give you an audio example of the chord finding process. But first let me give you some guidelines that will help you when you are searching for those chords. Chord progressions, especially vocal songs, have certain patterns that are typically followed. Once you learn the general guidelines that these patterns follow, it will be easier for you to figure out chord progressions. In an article written for Flatpicking Guitar Magazine back in July of 1999, Joe Carr provided a list of seven “General Chord Progression Rules.” I’ll reprint those here for your convenience, and I’ve added an eighth.
Joe’s General Chord Progression Rules 1. Songs usually start and end on the I (one) chord. If it’s in G, the last chord is almost always G. The first chord is often G too, but there are many exceptions. For instance, in the key of G the first chord of “John Hardy” is C. 2. If the last chord is I, (which it almost always is), the next to last chord is most often a V chord. In the key of G, D or D7 is often the next to last chord. 3. Many bluegrass and folk tunes use a I-IV-V progression which, in the key of G, is G, C, and D. Learn the I, IV, V sequence in every key you play in. A large number of bluegrass and old-time country songs use these three chords in different orders. 4. Many older mountain songs have a single progression for the verse and chorus (i.e., “Pig in a Pen”). 5. If the verse and chorus are different from each other, chances are the chords will do something new at the beginning of the chorus. If the song has been loping along in G during the verse, look for a C (IV) or D (V) to start the chorus. These are not the only possibilities, but they are very common. 6. If the progression moves to a major chord other than I, IV, or V, try II or VI. In the key of G, an A (II) chord sometimes shows up (“Good-bye Old Pal”) or occasionally an E (VI) or E7 (“Salty Dog Blues”). 7. If a minor chord appears, it will often be a II minor, a III minor, or a VI minor. In the key of G, these are Am (II-) as in the “Beverly Hillbillies Theme,” a Bm (III-) as in “Dixie Hoedown,” or an Em (VI-) as in “Foggy Mountain Breakdown.” 8. Many standard fiddle tunes will go to the flat VII chord. In the key of G, the flat VII chord is the F chord.
Flatpicking Essentials Volume 2: Learning How To Solo, Carter Style and Beyond
Songs like “Red Haired Boy,” “Paddy on the Turnpike,” “June Apple,” “Salt Creek,” “Old Joe Clark,” and “Big Mon” include the flat VII chord in the progression. All of these guidelines follow rules of music theory, however, at this point in time in the course we will not delve into those topics. I’ll save that discussion for later when we talk about things like the “Circle of Fifths” and creating “tension and release” in Volume 4. The illustration below is called a “Chord Ladder” and gives a visual image to some of the guidelines for chord progressions (uppercase indicates major chords, lower case indicates minor chords). The way the ladder works is that everything flows from top to bottom once you move from the root chord (I) to the first chord that follows it in the progression. For instance, if you are in the key of G, the next chord is most likely going to be a C chord (following the I, IV, V convention). If the progression goes from G to C, then once the progression jumps from the G up to the C, it will then most likely flow down the ladder. So, the next chord is probably going to be a D or and F chord, or it might flow all the way back down to G. So if you are trying to figure out a chord progression and you have found that the song starts with a G chord and then moves to a C chord, the ladder will tell you that the next chord after that C will most likely by a D or a G, or possibly an F.
If you discover that the progression starts with a G chord and then moves from G to D (which again is likely due, once again, to the I, VI, V rule), then the next chord will probably be a G chord. If the progression starts out on the G chord and you find that the C chord and the D chords don’t sound right for the second chord of the progression, the next chord to try is the E or Em chord (next one up the rung from C). If that works, then the progression will most likely move back down the ladder and thus the chord that follows the Em chord can be the C, A or Am, the D, or it could go all the way back down to the G. Each time the progression cycles back down to the root chord, it will them pop back up to one of the higher chords on the ladder and cycle back down to the root, eventually stopping on the root at the end of the song. Here are some examples to look at that all follow the chord ladder: Blue Ridge Cabin Home: I-IV-V-I Will the Circle Be Unbroken: I-IV-I-V-I Red Haired Boy (A part): I-IV-I-flatVII-I-IV-V-I Cherokee Shuffle (A part): I-vi-IV-I-V-I Dixie Hoedown (B part): I-iii-IV-I-V-I Salty Dog Blues: I-VI-II-V-I Does all that make sense? Do you see how the progression likes to cycle from the root up the ladder and back down the ladder to the root? Try some of the
The Chord Ladder Tension
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Flatpicking Essentials Volume 2: Learning How To Solo, Carter Style and Beyond
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songs that you already know and see how they flow on the ladder. While the guidelines and the ladder are rules that can easily be broken and thus many songs don’t fit the guidelines, you will find that most songs do follow these guidelines. So, keeping them in mind, listen to the first track of the audio CD and I’ll let you listen to how you go about figuring out the chord progression to a simple song.
Step Three: Find the Melody Now that you have selected a song, you know how to sing it, and have figured out the chord progression, you are ready to find the melody. While using your ear to find the melody is, in a sense, a fingerboard hunting expedition—”seek and you shall find”—there are guidelines that you can use so that your hunting is limited to a very small area of the fingerboard, and the best thing to use as road map is the major scale. For the simple songs that we will be working with in this book, you can expect that nearly all of the melody notes will be those notes that can be found in the major scale of the key that you have chosen. Therefore, in most instances, you are going to only have to hunt in an eight note neighborhood. If you are working with the key of C and you know the C major scale, you are going to decrease the amount of detective work that you will have to do in order to find the melody. The relationship between the pitch of any two notes in a melody is called an “interval.” Later in the course I will dive more into the theory of the various intervals, but for now simply know that the musical “distance” between any two notes in a melody is called an interval. As your ear gains skill at identifying these various intervals, your ability to pick out melodies will gradually improve. Once again, the best way for me to show you how to find a melody is for you to hear me do it, so the bulk
C Scale: Lower Octave
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of his lesson will be explained on the audio CD, Track 02. On that track I’ll take you through the process of singing, or humming, the first note of the melody and then finding it on your guitar. But before you play that track, here are a few guidelines regarding melody in mind. 1) Melodies usually start on the 1st or 5th note of the scale. There are exceptions, the most common being the 3rd note of the scale (you’ll remember from Volume 1 that notes of a major chord are the 1st, 3rd, and 5th notes of the scale). So, if you are having trouble matching the note on the guitar to the note you are singing, try one of those three notes first. 2) Most all melodies will end on the first note of the scale (the root note). In other words, the last note of the melody will be the first note of the scale. 3) Guideline 1 also applies when the chords change. The first note of a chord change will probably be the 1st or 5th note in the scale of the chord to which you are moving. For instance, if you are in the key of C and you are moving to an F chord, the first note of that chord change is probably going to be an F note or a C note. If you are moving to a G chord, the first melody note of that chord change will either be G note or a D note. If the first not in the chord change is not the 1st or 5th, your next guess should be the 3rd note. 4) Most melodies follow step-wise motion, which means they move up or down the scale in small “leaps” (also called conjunct motion) as opposed to large leaps (disjunct motion) that jump all over the place. The next note in a melody will probably only be one, two, three, or four notes away, up or down, in the scale. The exception to this is the leap of seven notes (the octave leap). You will find the octave leap used more often than a leap of five or six notes. In the example on the audio disc, I’ve used the song “You Are My Sunshine” to demonstrate how to go about finding a melody to a song by ear. Listen to that now
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Flatpicking Essentials Volume 2: Learning How To Solo, Carter Style and Beyond
You Are My Sunshine: Melody in C, Lower Register C
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and then look at the transcription that I’ve provided on this page. Notice that all of the notes in this melody are notes that make up the first six notes of the “lower octave” C major scale (shown at the bottom of the previous page). If you analyze this melody, you will see that it adheres to all the guidelines that are printed above. It starts on the root note and it ends on the root note. The first note of every chord change is either the 1st, 3rd, or 5th note in the scale of that chord. There
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are no large leaps between any two melody notes. So, for this song our guidelines hold true. That may not always be the case, but for most simple songs I think you will find that the guidelines that I’ve presented for both chords and melody lines will hold true. While the eventual goal is to hear the chord changes and the melody line without having to think about the guidelines, you can rely on them for now while you are working to develop your ear.
Flatpicking Essentials Volume 2: Learning How To Solo, Carter Style and Beyond
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Practice:
Homework:
Now that you’ve learned the melody to “You Are My Sunshine” in the key of C, try to memorize that melody by playing it over and over again on your guitar. This would be a good time to get out that metronome and tap your foot along with it. There is a lot of empty space between some of those melody notes and working with empty space while the metronome is ticking away is a very good exercise. You need to work with the simple melody of this song until your start to reach that “melody burnout” stage. You want to be able to watch TV or hold a conversation with someone while playing this melody. Try to really get the melody notes and the melody’s timing solidly lodged in your muscle memory and your brain.
Once you’ve learned how to play the melody to “You Are My Sunshine” in the key of C on the lower register, move the entire melody up an octave as shown in the tab at the top of the next page. Before really examining that tab, try to do it by ear. After you’ve accomplished the higher octave in the key of C, then move on to find the melody at the lower and higher octave in the key of G (you can use the scales written below as a guide). Next move on to the key of D, then the key of A. I’ve only written out one octave of of the song in D, and I’ve not given you any help with the key of A. Learning to play a melody, by ear, in a number of different keys is a great ear training and fretboard familiarity tool.
G Scale: Lower Octave
G Scale: Higher Octave
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Flatpicking Essentials Volume 2: Learning How To Solo, Carter Style and Beyond
You Are My Sunshine: Melody in C, Higher Octave
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Flatpicking Essentials Volume 2: Learning How To Solo, Carter Style and Beyond
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You Are My Sunshine: Melody in G, Lower Octave 1
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Flatpicking Essentials Volume 2: Learning How To Solo, Carter Style and Beyond
More Homework: After you have worked through the process of finding the chords and melody to “You Are My Sunshine” in four different keys and at two different octaves in each of those keys, you should be pretty familiar with that melody. Now that you have worked through the process with this song, pick out another song from the list of 40 that I previously presented and go through the whole process again (learning words, chords, and melody). Remember to play that melody so many times that it becomes lodged in your brain and your fingers. If you think that you are getting bored playing the same simple thing over and over, try focusing on different aspects of your playing every time you go through the song. When you know a melody so well that you don’t have to think about where your fingers are going you are then ready to really focus on things like timing, tuning, tone, note clarity, economy of motion, volume, etc. Listen carefully with full attention to each note. Does the note sound in tune? Are you getting good tone? Are you playing in perfect time with the metronome? Does your playing sound confident? Are your hands relaxed? Is your movement efficient? Focus closely on a different aspect of your playing every time you play the melody and you should never get bored. The best way to improve all aspects of your playing is to play something that is simple, play it slowly, listen carefully, and really play with full awareness of everything that is going on. Most students are so concerned with remembering where their fingers are supposed to be going that they are completely unaware of all of the subtle details. By the time they have worked with a song long enough to really have it memorized, they think they are now ready for the next song and they move on to struggle with the memorization process again without taking enough time with the first song to really learn how to play it well. After six months, or a year, they know how to play a dozen songs, however, they can’t play any of them smoothly with good time or tone. The notes sound muffled and they aren’t clearly defined or played with confidence. If you don’t think that the above describes your process or your playing, try recording yourself and then re-evaluate. Recording yourself can be a very humbling experience. I highly recommend it. If you record yourself and feel as though you have great timing and tone, good for you! However, if you feel like you do fit the profile, slow down, pay attention, and get back to basics.
By the way, if you feel like you do need to work on the basics of timing, tone, tuning, technique, etc. I highly recommend that you purchase and watch Tim Stafford’s instructional DVD titled Acoustic Guitar Fundamentals. Even if you’ve been playing for years, you will get a lot out of this DVD. Tim will teach you about the things that you need to be paying attention to, how to think about them, and how to work on them. The DVD is available at www.flatpickingmercantile. com.
Step Four: Basic Carter Style Once you get the melody of a song firmly implanted in your brain, running down your arm to your fingers, and out the sound hole of your guitar—with good tone, good time, and confidence—it is time to add a little harmonic and rhythmic content by filling in any time gaps with a few extra quarter notes and/or strums. Believe it or not, it is that simple to have a guitar solo that really doesn’t sound too bad. Don’t believe me? Turn to the next page and play through the basic Carter style arrangement of “You Are My Sunshine.” If you have become familiar with the melody in the key of C, this should be easy for you. Having finished working with the content of Volume 1, both the right and left hand should be very accustomed to this style of playing. For this simple Carter style arrangement the rule of thumb that I applied was pretty straight forward. It involved four elements: 1) If there was a quarter note I left it alone. 2) If there was a quarter note rest on a downbeat (first or third beat), I simply added a single quarter note (as in measures 3, 5, 7, 9, and 11). The note I chose to use was identical to the note that appears on the second beat of each of those measures. 3) If there was a half note on the downbeat of any measure (first or third beat), I shorted that note to a quarter note and then followed it with a quarter note strum (measures 2, 4, 6, 10, 12, 14, 15, & 16) 4) If there was a whole note on the first beat of any measure, I changed that measure to have a quarter note, strum, quarter note, strum pattern (as in measure 8). Although the end result followed these four rules, I did not sit down and think about the rules. Having a very good command of the melody and a knowledge of bass notes and strums from playing rhythm (as outlined in Volume 1), I simply played the melody and put in a strum where I felt like I had room to do so.
Flatpicking Essentials Volume 2: Learning How To Solo, Carter Style and Beyond
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You Are My Sunshine: Basic Carter Style in C
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With practice, you will be able to do this spontaneously as well. However, until you become comfortable with combining a melody with strumming in “real time,” you can follow the four guidelines and work out each tune. Eventually you will gain the experience and skill to do it all spontaneously. Most simple songs that you will encounter will be a little bit easier to deal with than “You Are My Sunshine” in terms of taking the melody and creating a 16
2
œ 3
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œ 3
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Audio Track 1-07
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Carter style solo. This song is a little unique in that in measures 3, 5, 7, 9, and 11 you have that quarter note rest on the first beat of the measure to deal with. A song that is ideal for Carter style is one where some of the melody notes are quarter notes (which we leave alone) or they are otherwise half notes or whole notes that land on beats one or three of each measure. If there are rests, they are ideally half note rests that fall on the first or third beats of the measure. A song that ideally fits
Flatpicking Essentials Volume 2: Learning How To Solo, Carter Style and Beyond
in this way is the song “Will the Circle Be Unbroken.” If you will skip ahead for just a second and look at the melody for this song on page 20, you will see what I’m talking about. This song has a sparse melody and fits all the criteria for the ideal Carter Style song. It is not that a song like “You Are My Sunshine” does not fit the Carter style, because you can see that it does on the previous page. However, when we have to repeat quarter notes due to the quarter note rest on the first beat of a measure (or chose some other option, as we discuss in the next section), it doesn’t flow quite so well and it does not sound as full. In the next section we’ll take a look at how we might alter the Carter Style version of “You Are My Sunshine” to give it a fuller sound, however, first how about a little Carter style practice with your guitar and some homework?
Practice:
Practice working with the arrangement of “You Are My Sunshine” that appears on the previous page until you can play it without looking at the tab. After you have done that, then try to figure out how to apply the basic Carter style technique to the melodies that you practiced in the previous section for “You Are My Sunshine” in the key of G and in the key of D. Playing it in the key of G is fairly easy. The key of D is a little tricker.
Homework:
Once you’ve learned how to play the Carter style arrangement to “You Are My Sunshine” in the keys of C, G, and D, go back to the songs that you worked to find the melodies for in the last homework problem and try to play a Carter style arrangement for those songs. The more practice that you get picking out a song, finding the chord progression, picking out the melody, and then playing a Carter style arrangement, the better you will get at it and the more natural it will become. This entire process is very good training for your ear and for forging a connection between what you hear in your head and what you can find on your guitar. The more you practice, the easier it gets and the faster you will get at finding those notes on the guitar.
Step Five: Simplified Melody Earlier I talked about simplifying the melody and gave some reasons for learning how to do it. Now we are going to practice doing it. Searching for those notes in a melody that are the “stable” notes—those notes that define the song and must be either present or implied in the solo in order for the song to be recognizable—is an art form. Masters of this art form can manipulate a melody in dozens of different ways in their arrangements and improvisations and the song is still always recognizable. Real pros know how to do it just right so that the melody is stated, yet they always seem to play it differently every time they render the tune. Unfortunately, there are many amateur “hot licks” players, who do just the opposite. The play so many licks that the melody gets totally lost. The eventual goal is to learn how to play a solo that is creative and exciting, yet still maintains the melody of the song. Remember, Melody is King! One rule of thumb to follow states that someone walking into the room in the middle of your guitar solo should be able to recognize the song after only listening to a couple of bars. If you are so far away from the melody that someone can’t figure out what song you are playing, then you are going to lose your audience. Of course, like everything else there are exceptions to the rule, especially in jazz, but we are not there yet! So for now, keep it all simple and keep the melody recognizable. Like everything else, we are going to start with the easy stuff. We are going to manipulate the melody the easiest way possible and then eventually work up to making more dramatic changes. The easiest place to start on a song like “You Are My Sunshine” is to simply remove the notes that are repeated and then play through it and see if you can still recognize the song. Remember, we are stripping it down in order to build it back up later. But for now, going through the exercise of learning a melody and then stripping it down to its defining elements will be a valuable exercise when you begin to work to create your own arrangements and improvisations later in this course. Take a look at the simplified melody for “You Are My Sunshine” that appears on the next page. Play through it a few times and see if you can recognize the song. Although we have removed a number of notes, the song is still recognizable because we have kept the notes that are the most stable and defining notes for that melody. If you look at all of the open space that removing these notes has left for us, you will recognize
Flatpicking Essentials Volume 2: Learning How To Solo, Carter Style and Beyond
17
You Are My Sunshine: Simplified Melody C
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Ó
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that we now have a lot of room for interpretation and creativity. While all of this open space will strike fear in the hearts of some because they are not sure how they will be able to fill that space with something that is going to sound interesting to the listener, my goal in this course is to get you to the point where you know enough and have enough experience filling in that space that you will look at this open space as a good thing. 18
0
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Audio Track 1-08
w 3
On the next page I have taken the simplified melody shown above and inserted Carter style strums. If you play through this arrangement you may notice that there are more strums and thus, as a whole, a fuller sound. However, you may also notice that if you play all of the strums exactly the same and as you were taught in the first volume of this series, that some of those prominent melody notes that appear in the simplified melody don’t
Flatpicking Essentials Volume 2: Learning How To Solo, Carter Style and Beyond
You Are My Sunshine: Carter Style in C (Added Strumming)
1
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sound so prominent here because they are buried in a strum. I have indicated these strums in the tab above with a “>” above the strum and I’ve put the strum tab numbers in a bold face font to indicate that you may want to play these strums as “accented strum.” If you play these strums with a little more precision in the articulation of each note of the strum and play the strum with a little bit more of a heavy hand, the melody note will pop out and thus the song will retain
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U 3
that strong sense of melody that we are looking for in this Carter style arrangement. Take a listen to the audio CD and I will explain how this strum is executed and let you hear what it sounds like. Then I will play the tab that is shown above so you can hear the accented strum in context. Using the accented strum is just one way that you can remain true to the melody, yet add some additional flavor, or harmonic content, to your arrangement.
Flatpicking Essentials Volume 2: Learning How To Solo, Carter Style and Beyond
19
Before we move on to add more variations and techniques to our simple Carter style arrangements, lets go through the process of finding a melody and playing the simple Carter style arrangement one more time with the song “Will the Circle Be Unbroken.” I’ve tabbed out the melody and written the chord changes in the key of C below, but I encourage you to try to find them on your guitar by ear before you look at what is written on this page. After you have found the chords and melody for “Will the Circle Be Unbroken” in the key of C, go ahead and work out the Carter style arrangement. Since this is a relatively simple and sparse melody to begin with,
we don’t really need to go through the simplification process here. However, if you want to experiment with the simplification step on your own, be my guest. Its good practice! I’ve tabbed out my Carter style arrangement in the keys of C and G on the next page. Then I’ve followed that by Carter style arrangements in the keys of D and A on the page that follows. Try to work out melodies and Carter style arrangements in all four of these keys on your own before playing through what I’ve written. Finding chords, melody and Carter arrangement in several different keys is always a great exercise for your ear and for fretboard familiarity. Audio Track 1-10
Will The Circle Be Unbroken: Melody C
½ 1
½
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É
Will the
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by
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cle
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un - bro - ken
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Flatpicking Essentials Volume 2: Learning How To Solo, Carter Style and Beyond
Will The Circle Be Unbroken: Carter Style Key of C C F 1 ½
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Will The Circle Be Unbroken: Carter Style Key of G
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Flatpicking Essentials Volume 2: Learning How To Solo, Carter Style and Beyond
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Will The Circle Be Unbroken: Carter Style Key of D
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Will The Circle Be Unbroken: Carter Style Key of A Audio Track 1-11 1 A D ½ 2 2 3 3 2 2 2 2 2 2 T ½ 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 A B
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Flatpicking Essentials Volume 2: Learning How To Solo, Carter Style and Beyond
Practice:
Now that you’ve played “Will The Circle Be Unbroken” in four different keys, do the same thing for a few new songs. Go through the entire process of picking out the chords, picking out the melody, and creating your own simple Carter style arrangement in several different keys. The more comfortable you become with this process, through practice, the easier it will become and the better trained your ear will be and the better you will get to know how to find notes on your guitar.
Homework:
Sit down with your guitar at least 5 to 10 minutes per day and try to find the chords and melody to any song that comes to mind. It could be a theme for a TV show, it could be a jingle for a TV commercial, it could be your high school fight song, your favorite show tune, a bluegrass vocal that you like to sing, or a Beatles song. Try to find the melody of the first song that enters your head. Some songs will have a melody that is more challenging than others. For now, if you find that a melody has you stumped after several tries, move on to something else that may be easier to find. Don’t allow yourself to get too frustrated. During this time, just find melodies, don’t worry about strums or Carter style. This is just melody finding, ear training time.
Use What You Already Know
Now that you have some experience working with a simple Carter style arrangement, our focus for the remainder of this volume will be to gradually add new techniques to those arrangements in an effort to make the arrangements more varied and interesting, yet still maintain a strong sense of melody. The first thing that you can do to make your Carter style arrangements more interesting is to use some of the techniques that you practiced in Volume 1, like alternate strums, hammer-ons, pull-offs, slides, bass runs, and fill licks. You already know how to use them to spice up your rhythm playing, so why not use them to spice up your Carter style lead playing as well? After having worked with these techniques in Volume 1, you should not have any problem adding
them to your Carter style arrangements. On the pages that follow I’m providing you with the melodies and arrangements of several tunes where I’ve employed some of these familiar techniques. Let’s look at each of these examples and then you can work to come up with arrangements of your own. She’ll Be Coming Around the Mountain— On the page 25 you will find the melody and chord changes for “She’ll Be Coming Around the Mountain.” Like always, I recommend that you try to figure out the melody and chord changes yourself before you look at what is printed on the next page. It’ll be good practice. Then, just for fun, go ahead and work through that “melody burnout” phase. Don’t just memorize the melody in your head, build that “muscle memory” to the point where you can play the song without thinking about what notes come next, they just come. Next, go ahead and figure out a simply Carter style arrangement of your own for this song. After you’ve done that, work on adding some of those alternatives and embellishments that you worked to add to your rhythm playing in the last volume. See what you can come up with on your own before you look at what I’ve done. I recommend that you always try to figure out something on your own before you look at what I’ve written. What I’ve arranged for you in this course, or what Tony Rice, Doc Watson, David Grier, or Bryan Sutton have arranged for their recordings should only be something you use to learn new techniques and to get new ideas. If you memorize someone else’s arrangement, I recommend you use that to gain information, but then move away from that exact arrangement as soon as you can by creating a variation of your own. I’ll mention here a process that I feel like you should use for the remainder of this volume and the remainder of this course: 1) For any song that is written in this book the first thing that you should do is try and figure out the chords, melody and simple Carter style arrangement for yourself before you look at what I have written. 2) Once you take a look at what I have written, study it for any new technique or cool sounding embellishment that you’d like to learn. Play through my arrangement. If you like it and want to memorize it, go ahead and do that, but get away from the tab as soon as possible. If you’ve worked with the melody and Carter style arrangement sufficiently, you should be able to get my arrangements “off the paper” in a matter of ten to fifteen minutes, or less.
Flatpicking Essentials Volume 2: Learning How To Solo, Carter Style and Beyond
23
3) After you can play through my arrangement without looking at the tab, work to change my arrangement by adding various embellishments and techniques of your own. You don’t have to make drastic changes right away. Change just one or two measures. Add a bass run here, add a hammer-on there, etc. Start to make it something of your own as soon as you can. In the pages that remain in this volume I’m going to be providing you with fairly straight-forward arrangements of simple vocal songs. If you work through all of the steps that I have outlined, you will not only end up adding all of these songs to your repertoire, you will also end up with your own arrangements of these songs and gain a lot of confidence in your ability to move forward and make up your own arrangements to any song. OK, now that I’ve said that, let’s get back on track and take a look at my arrangement for “She’ll Be Coming Around the Mountain” on page 26. I’ve not printed out the “simplify the melody” step separately, however, I have printed those “stable notes” in bold print. Again, it would be a good exercise if you could work out the simplified melody on your own before you look at my arrangement. Here is a quick synopsis of what I’ve done to the melody of “She’ll Be Coming Around the Mountain”: 1) In measure two, I’ve added two hammer-ons and two strums. These changes don’t really have an affect the melody. In the simplified melody there are two “stable” notes in this measure—the C note on beat 1 and the C note on beat 3. The hammer-on hits that second C note a eighth note early, but it is still ringing as you strum on beat 4 and thus still presents the ear with the melody at the right time. 2) In measure four I have modified the melody a little on beats 3 and 4. However, remember that when we simplified the melody it opened up that second beat for some modification without affecting any of the stable notes that are defining our melody and making the song recognizable. 3) In measure 5 I simply added a strum. 4) In measure 6 I’ve added a hammer-on and two strums. Again, the stable note on beat 4 has been shifted forward a beat, however, it is still ringing on beat 4 and thus implies the melody note there. 5) In measures 8 and 9 there was a lot of open space so I executed an base run that moves down the G arpeggio and inserted strums between the bass notes. You learned this kind of run in Volume 1. 6) Measure 10 is like measure 6, however, I have added 24
a fuller strum so that the melody notes are picked up in the chord. 7) In measure 12 I added a strum and I also added the C note on beat 4 for flavor and interest. I have gone away from the melody by hitting that note, but I don’t think that I took away from the overall flow of the song, and throwing in an unexpected note here and there makes the listener’s ear perk up. By this time in the song we have played enough of the solid melody notes that the listener is very aware of the song and is thinking of the melody in their mind as you play. Throwing in a note that momentarily takes them away from the flow of anticipated notes that the listener is predicting in their mind adds a bit of flavor and excitement. 8) In measure 14, I did a similar thing to what I did in measure 12, I added a short bass run that didn’t really agree with the melody, but led up to the first note in measure 15. It is a small diversion from the melody, but then I get right back to it to finish out the song, so I think it works. Although I’ve analyzed my arrangement for you here, I did not sit down and think about each measure before I played it. I played the song off the top of my head, the way if felt right for me, and then later I analyzed what I had done. If you can do it that way, I think that is the best way to arrange because the music is then coming from your heart and your gut and not your brain. Sometimes, if you are stuck or don’t have experience with improvisation, then you may have to take it one measure at a time and come up with your arrangement that way, and that is OK. However, our true goal in this course is learning how to improvise. When beginners go to a jam session and they see experienced players at the jam, or professional players on stage, take solo after solo and play it differently every time, and play solos on songs that they may have never heard before, the typical reaction is “Wow, how do they do that?” To a beginner this can seem like a complete and total mystery—almost like magic. But you too can get there and if you’d like to get there, I encourage you to start working at it right now. Don’t wait until you think that you are “good enough” because by then it will be too late. If you start right now, you can get it. Before we move on to the next song, let me talk for just a little bit about this mysterious thing called “improvisation.” (Work through “She’ll Be Coming Around the Mountain” first and then I’ll meet you on the other side of that song).
Flatpicking Essentials Volume 2: Learning How To Solo, Carter Style and Beyond
She’ll Be Coming Around the Mountain: Melody C
4 &4 Ó 1
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She’ll be
Ó
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Audio Track 1-12
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Flatpicking Essentials Volume 2: Learning How To Solo, Carter Style and Beyond
˙ 3
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she’ll
be
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She’ll Be Coming Around the Mountain: Carter Style
Audio Track 1-13
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Flatpicking Essentials Volume 2: Learning How To Solo, Carter Style and Beyond
Improvisation “Improvisation” in music is basically the art of composing music “in the moment.” It is the act of spontaneously arranging a guitar solo based on your feeling in that “moment” and/or your reaction to what the other musicians are doing. Most beginner’s think “That sounds pretty advanced. I could never do that. I’m just a beginner.” Right! You are a beginner, so you need to begin right now also being a beginning improviser! If all you play on your guitar right now are those things that you’ve memorized from tab or been taught by your teacher, then you are going to have a hard time breaking out of that “memorize and regurgitate” rut later. The longer you stay with memorized solos that are based on someone else’s arrangement, the harder it is going to be for you to eventually break away and create your own solos. What I’m going to encourage you to do in this volume, and throughout this course, is to always work to come up with your own arrangements. Since we are starting with simple ideas and then moving forward gradually, I have confidence that you can do it. The process that you are learning here is going to help. The steps of learning the chords, learning the melody, learning a simple Carter style arrangement, learning how to simplify the melody, and then learning how to add your own techniques and embellishments in order to come up with an interesting arrangement (on your own!) is how you start moving towards this idea of improvisation. If you go through the steps I’ve outline above enough times, with enough different songs, in enough different keys, you will start to be able to execute those steps at a faster and faster pace. The process will become natural to you and you will eventually start to be able to execute them spontaneously and in the moment. It is just like driving a car. The first time you drove a car you had to think about all of the steps one-by-one, now you just get in and drive without really having to think about it. My definition of improvisation stated that it was “composition in the moment.” What you are going to work on in this course is arrangement and composition of songs starting with the melody and then moving towards adding a number of techniques that will embellish that melody. At first every step may take a little while. As you get better, the amount of time it takes you to accomplish each step will shorten. As time goes by, believe it or not, you will get to that place
where all of the steps will occur at once, spontaneously, and in the moment. But first work each step one-byone, without skipping steps. You will get there. So, getting back to what I was talking about in my analysis of “She’ll Be Coming Around the Mountain.” When I arranged that solo, I did it “in the moment.” I picked up my guitar, decided that I would play this song in the key of C and I just started playing. At the time it was a song that I had never played before. The arrangement you see on the previous page came out spontaneously. I didn’t have to think about it. It just happened. It is not a very complex arrangement, but your arrangements and improvisations don’t have to be complex. Start simple, but start! For every song that is presented in this book I want you to come up with your own arrangement, I don’t want you to memorize and copy mine and stay with my arrangement. You can learn mine, but then change it. And as I stated before, the changes don’t have to be radical. Just change it a little. Then the next time you play it, change it a little more. Then a little more. Pretty soon, you’ll have a variety of arrangements and they will all be your own. David Grier is one of the most creative flatpicking guitar players in the world. He can play one song and come up with a seemingly endless number of variations. People are amazed at his inventiveness and versatility. How did he get to where he is today? When I interviewed David he told me that when he was a young kid he would sit down and figure out an arrangement for a song and then play it for his father. His father would say, “That’s great David! Now go back and see if you can figure out another way to play that song.” David was encouraged, from a very young age, to continually think about new ways to play the same songs. I want to encourage you to do the same thing. You can learn my version, but then sit down and figure out another way to play it based on the tools and techniques that you have learned. One more thought and then I’ll step off of my improvisation soap box. I think that most people are afraid to come up with their own arrangements and are afraid to improvise because they are afraid that they will “get it wrong,” or “make a mistake.” You need to get beyond that. You need to be OK with stepping outside your comfort zone. I’ve heard Dan Crary say something like, “The people who are the best at improvisation are those who are not afraid to improvise.” That is exactly right! So, in the remainder of this course, here is what I’d like you to do. Once you learn the chords, the melody,
Flatpicking Essentials Volume 2: Learning How To Solo, Carter Style and Beyond
27
and a simple Carter style solo, start messing with it in real time. Play through it and begin adding a hammeron here, a slide there, a bass run, and alternate strum pattern, etc. Do it “in the moment.” Don’t worry about making mistakes. I’ll be showing you a variety of new techniques in this volume like tremolo, double stops, cross picking, neighboring notes, and scale runs. As you learn each new technique, add it to your “bag of tricks.” Go back and play “She’ll Be Coming Around the Mountain” and “You Are My Sunshine” and “Will The Circle Be Unbroken” again and try to use the new techniques. Play the song over and over and try to see if you can come up with something a little different each time. If you stumble, then go back, slow things down, and take your time arranging something. But always spend a little bit of time trying new things “in the moment” everyday. If you start doing that right now you will eventually get to that place where you are the person everyone at the jam session is looking at and saying “How does he (or she) do that!” Now let’s move on! Let’s take a look at a few more songs. I’m not going to analyze them in as much detail as I did for “She’ll Be Coming Around the Mountain.” I’m going to let you do the analysis of each song. I want you to try the song on your own and then look at what I did with the song. But please try it on your own first, going through each of the steps, and then look at mine. Below I’ll simply state what I’m trying to demonstrate in my arrangements of each of these songs. Nine Pound Hammer— “Nine Pound Hammer” is shown on the next page. I wanted to use this song because it is popular, open to a lot of variation and interpretation, and it is the first song in this book that has a few eighth notes in the melody (measures 3 and 7). In my arrangement I wanted to maintain those eighth note melody runs, plus I wanted to add some hammer-ons, pull-offs, and slides. Plus I throw in a nice little G lick at the end, which you should recognize from Volume 1. Jesse James— For this song I tried to throw in bass notes where I might have otherwise selected to strum. You’ll remember from Volume 1 that there were some arrangements of our G, C, D rhythm where we made liberal use of strums and others where selected to use more bass runs. You can 28
do the same thing with lead arrangements. Sometimes they sound nice with strums and other times applying more bass runs sounds good. Red River Valley— Here is an arrangement of “Red River Valley.” Instead of providing a separate tab for the melody by itself, I’ve indicated the melody notes in bold. In this arrangement I stuck with a simple Carter style solo that is based on the melody, but I’ve also added in some alternate strumming patterns during a couple of the long vocal pauses. I also used that bass run in G that descends down the G arpeggio in measure 8. It’s the same one I used in measure 8 of “She’ll Be Coming Around the Mountain” and measure 8 of “Jesse James.” I guess like that one! Old Joe Clark— “Old Joe Clark” is a vocal song that is often also played as a “fiddle tune” instrumental. Fiddle arrangements tend to be full of eighth note runs and can be difficult to play on the guitar, especially at high tempos. However, if you are in a fiddle tune jam, do not feel as if you have to play so many notes! If you look at the basic melody for “Old Joe Clark” you can see that there are no eighth notes in the melody. Most flatpickers who learn this song will learn someone’s fiddle tune style arrangement without first learning the basic melody. One of the problems they run into with that approach is that if they get in a jam and the other musicians are playing at a fast tempo, then can’t keep up. Learning a fiddle tune solo is great, however, if you learn the basic melody first, you can go back to it if you find you are in a situation where the tempo is just too fast to play your eighth note fiddle style arrangement. When you play just the melody you are cutting the number of notes that you have to play in half! My motto is: “If the tempo is high—simplify!” I chose to use “Old Joe Clark” as an example here because I wanted to use it to demonstrate another way of adding chordal strums to a melody line that is a little different than the standard Carter style. If you take a look at my arrangement of “Old Joe Clark” you will see that I’ve kept all of the melody notes, but inserted an eighth note up-strum in-between them. This technique adds a drone sounding harmonic component. It is a very simple way to fill up space when your melody notes are quarter notes.
Flatpicking Essentials Volume 2: Learning How To Solo, Carter Style and Beyond
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Jesse James: Melody
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Flatpicking Essentials Volume 2: Learning How To Solo, Carter Style and Beyond
Jesse James: Melody (con’t) 26
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Flatpicking Essentials Volume 2: Learning How To Solo, Carter Style and Beyond
Red River Valley: Carter Style with Strum Variations
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Flatpicking Essentials Volume 2: Learning How To Solo, Carter Style and Beyond
Old Joe Clark: With Added Up Stroke Strumming
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Flatpicking Essentials Volume 2: Learning How To Solo, Carter Style and Beyond
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The Waltz: 3/4 Time Waltz time, or 3/4 time, is something that we did not cover in the last volume. I felt that we had our plate full with the bass runs and fill licks in 4/4 time and I wanted you to stay focused on that. However, now that you have spent plenty of time practicing the material in Volume 1, I think you are ready to handle a change of time signature. If you have been playing the guitar for any length of time, you have probably run into songs or instrumental tunes that are played in 3/4 time. It is a popular time signature in European and American music. However, if you have not had a chance to play a song in waltz time, this section will be your introduction to waltz time and you will have the opportunity to practice a couple of waltz time songs in the Carter style. Let’s start by giving you an experiential understanding of 3/4 time. Listen to the audio track of “Waltz Exercise 1” and then pick up your guitar and play that exercise as shown on the following page. The first thing you notice is that in waltz time there are 3 beats per measure instead of 4 beats per measure. You will no doubt recognize this timing if you ever had to learn how to dance back in elementary school and the teacher counted 1. 2. 3. — 1. 2. 3....as you awkwardly stepped around the room. If you ever find that you can’t get your mind working in the 3/4 meter, simply play through a progression like that in Waltz Exercise 1 in order to get that groove in your head, and then launch into the song. Give that a try with the first arrangement of “Down in the Valley” that I have provided on the page that appears after the waltz exercises. Play Waltz Exercise 1 a few times through, then the last time through, substitute the pick up measure of “Down in the Valley” for the last measure of Waltz Exercise 1. The first arrangement of “Down in the Valley” is a very simply melody-based Carter style arrangement. You will notice that I have put the melody notes in a bold font. If you can play Waltz Exercise 1, you should not have any problem with that first “Down in the Valley” arrangement. After you have spent some time working with Waltz Exercise 1 and the first arrangement of “Down in the Valley,” move on to try Waltz Exercise 2 as shown on the next page. In this exercise I’ve thrown in a few more quarter notes and some eighth notes. If you are not able to get a feel for the timing by reading the tab, refer to the audio tracks. After working with Waltz Exercise 2, try the second arrangement of “Down in the Valley.” 36
In this arrangement I added a few base runs and a few quarter notes to help spice up the arrangement. If you can play through the second arrangement of “Down in the Valley” without much trouble, then go ahead and try to play the arrangement of “Amazing Grace” that is on the page that follows “Down in the Valley.” Now take a look at the “Waltz Lick” that I have provided on the next page. Remember back in Volume 1 when we worked to develop all of those various bass lines? You can do the exact same thing in 3/4 time. In the first measure I’m using a two-note chromatic walk up that moves from G to D. At the end of the second measure I’m using that F# leading tone to move from D back to G. At the end of measure three I’m playing a 3/4 version of a simple G run. After you have had a chance to play through the Waltz Lick and have a good feel for it, take a look at the “Waltz Lick with Triplets”. In this example you’ll see that I’ve extended the chromatic walk up in measure 1. In order to extend this walk up, I’ve made it an eighth note “triplet.” In executing an eighth note triplet, the three notes of the triplet are given the same time value as two eighth notes. Listen to the audio track to get a feel for this timing. I’ve added another triplet in measure three. The notes of this triplet should be familiar to you from Volume 1 as well because they outline a G major arpeggio.
Practice:
Play through Waltz Exercises 1 and 2 with a metronome until you have a good feel for waltz time rhythm. Then practice playing both arrangements of “Down in the Valley” and the arrangement of “Amazing Grace” that are provided.
Homework:
After working with the “Waltz Lick” and the “Waltz Lick with Triplets,” try to apply some of the other bass runs that you learned in Volume 1 to 3/4 time. Work with a I, VI, V chord progression as you did in Volume 1, however, this time do it in waltz time. After working with waltz time rhythm for a while, try picking out the chords and melody for other waltz time songs and come up with your own Carter style arrangements. Try it with something like “Blue Moon of Kentucky.”
Flatpicking Essentials Volume 2: Learning How To Solo, Carter Style and Beyond
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Down in the Valley: Carter Style
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Flatpicking Essentials Volume 2: Learning How To Solo, Carter Style and Beyond
Amazing Grace: Carter Style
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Cutting Off the Strum: A Note on Measure 8: In measure 8 of this arrangement I’ve used a technique that we have not discussed thus far in this course. Instead of playing a quarter note strum on the last beat of this measure, I played an eighth note strum followed by an eighth note rest. The difference between the two is that if I had of played a quarter note strum I would have allowed the strum to ring for a quarter note. Instead what I did, for effect, is play the strum and then I immediately lightened the pressure of my left hand on the strings so that they still contacted the strings,
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but the strings were no longer pressed against the fret. What this does is mute, or cut off the ringing sound of the strum. If you listen carefully to the audio CD you will hear the effect. This is another tool that you can use to add interest to your strumming.
Flatpicking Essentials Volume 2: Learning How To Solo, Carter Style and Beyond
39
Practice with Carter Style Before we move on to take a look at a new techniques, I want you to first work to build up your Carter style song repertoire. In order to help you with that I have provided you with simple Carter style arrangements for 16 new songs. You should already be familiar with most, if not all, of these songs. Here is the list: 1) Jimmy Brown the Newsboy (Key of C) 2) Grandfather’s Clock (Key of C) 3) Old Spinning Wheel (Key of C) 4) Uncloudy Day (Key of C) 5) Home Sweet Home (Key of C) 6) John Hardy (Key of G) 7) John Henry (Key of G) 8) Buffalo Gals (Key of C) 9) Lonesome Road Blues (Key of G) 10) Wildwood Flower (Key of C) 11) Cripple Creek (Key of G) 12) Banks of the Ohio (Key of C) 13) East Virginia Blues (Key of C) 14) Keep on the Sunny Side (Key of C) 15) Bury Me Beneath the Willow (Key of C) 16) Yellow Rose of Texas (Key of C)
40
As I have stated several times previously, it would be best for you to work to find all of the chords, melodies, and Carter style arrangements of these songs by yourself before you look at my arrangements. I’ve included the keys that I used so that you can try them in the same keys if you’d like. I know that it will be a lot of work to come up with your own arrangements of all of these songs, however, going through steps 1 through 5 with all 16 of these songs should really help you build your confidence, and speed, in creating your own Carter Style arrangements. Once you have learned these 16 songs, combined with the nine songs we have worked with already in this book, you will have a repertoire of 25 songs in Carter style! I suggest that you really get to know these songs well because I will be using variations of many of these songs to demonstrate the new techniques that I will introduce in the remainder of this book. We will also use some of these songs when we work with more advanced techniques and arrangements later in this course. So, if you learn a basic arrangements now it will help you later. Good luck!
Flatpicking Essentials Volume 2: Learning How To Solo, Carter Style and Beyond
Jimmy Brown the Newsboy: Carter Style
C
1
I
T A B 6
0
3
2
paper
0 1 0 2
0 0 1 1 0 2 0 0 2
3
0 0 1 1 0 0 2 2
3 3 3 3 H 0 0 0 2
3 3 3 3 0 0
3 3 3 3 0 0 2 0 0
running along the street 0 0 1 1 0 0 2 2 3
0
0
3 3 0 0
3 3 0 0
3 3 0 0
I’ve
2
C
H
G
sir
H
H
knows that I’m the Newsboy of the
12
H
the mornin’
Every - body
3
sell
0
3 3 0 0
2
0
town.
3
Audio Track 1-21
3 3 0 0
3 3 0 0
G
my
name
Brown
0 1 0 2
0 0 1 1 0 0 2 2 3
is
Jim - my
H
2
0
2
You can hear me yell - ing 0 1 0 2 3
0
3
0 1 0 2
0 0 1 1 0 0 2 2 H
“Morning Star” 0 0 1 1 0 2 0 0 2 H
0 1 0 2
½ C
got no hat
3
2
0
up - on
2
3
my head no
2
0
Flatpicking Essentials Volume 2: Learning How To Solo, Carter Style and Beyond
2
shoes up - on my feet.
S
5
3
2
0
3
0 1 0 2
½
41
Grandfather’s Clock: Carter Style
½
1
My It
½
T A B
C
6
was
3
years pen -
0 1 0 2
2
12
C
morn
3
of
0 1 0 2
2
17
D
pride.
0
42
2 3 2 0
0
3
0 1 0 2
-
3
tall
-
G
stood nine - ty weighed not a 0 1 0 2
the
3
3 3 0 0
C
grand
0
3
by
2
3
half
2
3
0 1 0 2
F
C
day that
0
3
he
2
was
0
G
But
2 3 2 0
3 3 0 0 3
0
it
2
0 1 0 2
0 1 0 2
3
3
3
3
0 1 0 2
0 1 0 2
C
stopped
3
3
2
0
0 1 0 2
3
2
al
-
ways his
0
0 1 0 2
2
0
short
0
3 3 3 3 0 0
3
0
Though it 1 1 2 0
bought
on the
0 1 0
0
3
2
0
treas
-
0 1 0 2
3
G
it
It was
2.
1 1 2 3
0
2.
It was
And was
2
3
So
man him - self,
0 1 0 2
2
shelf,
C
0 1 0 2
F
for the
old
0
3
born,
large
than the
3
C
was too
3 3 0 0
0
C
on the floor. ny - weight more.
0
clock
G
fa - ther's er
Audio Track 1-22
ure and
2
3
C
never to
go
a -
0 1 0 2
3
2
2
Flatpicking Essentials Volume 2: Learning How To Solo, Carter Style and Beyond
Grandfather’s Clock: Carter Style (con’t)
22
F
gain,
When the
1 1 2 3
0
0
0 1 0 2
3
F
C
É
num- ber - ing,
2
2
stop
[
É
(tick,
É
É
( no chord
tock,
tick)
0
3
0
When the
1 1 2 3
)
0
0 1 0 2
0 1 0 2
C
old
3
(
]
É
It
0 1 0 2
0 1 0 2
stopped
3
3
3
3
G
man
2
up
3 3 0 0
0
and
0
C
short
nev - er
3 3 3 3 0 0
0
0 1 0 2
0 1 0 2
died.
Flatpicking Essentials Volume 2: Learning How To Solo, Carter Style and Beyond
1
3
sec - onds
life
0
3
3
0
É
3
3
G
C
2
3
É
0
0 1 0 2
] C
His
2
Nine - ty
3
)
tick)
C
3
no chord
0
3
1 1 2
0 1 0 2
3
tock,
0
gain,
0 1 0 2
3
(tick,
died.
2 time
C
and
0
stop
2
0
Étime
up
3 3 0 0
2
C
0
É
F
0
man
slum - ber - ing
3 [
G
É
0 1 0 2 3
3
F
with - out
3
38
0 1 0 2
1 1 2
C
years
32
old
27
C
to
2
0
0 1 0 2
go
a -
3
2
½ ½
43
Old Spinning Wheel: Carter Style
½
There's an
½
T A B
2
dreams
3
3 3 0 0
6
maid
G 10
2.
old 2. 0
14
44
3 3 0 0
old
3
of
the
with
her
3
0
fash - ioned 0
3
hear
her
in
the
3
1
0
2
spin - ning
dreams 0 1 0
0
1.
of 0
long, 1.
beau. 1
C
old
long
a
0
0 1 0 2
2
0 1 0 2
0 1 0 2
0
go,
3
-
2
0 1
0
3
2
0
2
0
3 3 0 0
2
3 F
1
2
0 1 0 2
1
0 1 0 2
a
0
2
Spin - ning
3
I
can
0
1
1 1 2
At
the
or - gan 0 1 0
0
And
2
3
Spin - ning
3
2
3 3 0 0
Some - times
twi - light 0 1 0
3
0 1 0 2
3
gar - den
0
2
par - lor
fash- ioned 0 1 0 2
0
G
in - the
C
3 3 0 0
0
wheel
1
C
an
C
1
Audio Track 1-23
soft - ly
4
0
Flatpicking Essentials Volume 2: Learning How To Solo, Carter Style and Beyond
Old Spinning Wheel: Carter Style (con’t) 18
sing - ing
2
22
0
26
long,
0
"Sweet
and
3
0
3 3 0 0
3 3 0 0
Low",
2
in
0 1 0 2
the
0
3 3 0 0
3 3 0 0
par - lor,
0
2
3
C
long
a
0
3
-
0
G
wheel
0
G
2
2
Spin - ning
0
0 1 0 2
2
0 1 0 2
dreams
3
0
3 3 0 0
1
of
the
3
0
3
go, 1
spin - ning
0
3
old
There's an
2
3 3 0 0
3 3 0 0 3
C
0
2
2
Flatpicking Essentials Volume 2: Learning How To Solo, Carter Style and Beyond
3
½
0 1 0 2
½
45
Uncloudy Day: Carter Style
½
Oh, they
½
T A B
3
C
tell
3
me 0 1 0 2
of
3
a
0
11
C
home
where no
0 1 0 2
3 16
2
0
G
un
H
0 2
46
-
cloud - ed
0 0
2
tell me
0
6
C
1
0
3
0 1 0 2
of
Audio Track 1-24
a
home
0 1 0 0
3
G
home
3
3
far
0 1 0 2
a
1 1 2 3
1 1 2 3
storm
clouds
3
day.
0
0 1 0 3
way;
2
3 3 0 0
1 1 2 3
1 1 2 3
0
3 3 0 0
2
3
the
0
0 1 0 2
0 1 0 2
3
3
Oh, they
Oh, 0
0
3
0
2
3
0
Oh, 0
Oh, they
0 1 0 2 3
0
3
0 1 0 2
of
a
3
0
2
0
2
me
C
tell
the
0
tell
they
0 1 0 2
3
0 1 0 2
skies,
C
0 1 0 3
C
C
C
3
rise,
0
3 3 0 0
3
-
be - yond
0
2
F
C
far
F
me
2
of
3
an
0
land 0
o - f
0 1 0 2
2
0
Flatpicking Essentials Volume 2: Learning How To Solo, Carter Style and Beyond
Uncloudy Day: Carter Style (con’t)
21
cloud
3 26
un
0 1 0 2
le - ss
0
-
day,
H
0 1 0 2
3
0
3
0 1 0 2 2
cloud - ed
2
home
sky,
0
where
0 1 0 2
3
no
2
storm
0
tell 0
me
2
of
3
an
0
un
2
1 1 2 3
0 0
1 1 2 3
2
0
land
2
0
C
tell
me 0 1 0 2
3
Oh, 0
2
0 1 0 2
of
3
0 1 0 2
0
of
an
2
0
a
3
they 2
3
cloud - ed
day. 1
2
they
0
0 1 0 2 C
0
Oh,
C
rise,
0
2
the
0 1 0 2
0
0
2
Oh,
0 2
0 3
clouds
3 G
34
0
3
3 3 0 0 F
3
3 G
0 1 0 2
3
30
-
C
0
3
Flatpicking Essentials Volume 2: Learning How To Solo, Carter Style and Beyond
2
0
2
3
3
0 1 0 2
47
Home Sweet Home: Carter Style
œœ œ œœ œœ œ œœ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ
C
4 &4 Ó 1
6
G
&œ e
0
10
œ œ
'M - id
Ó
T A B
C
&œ
œ œ œœ œ -
3 0 0
ver
œœ œ œ œ
ch - arm
2
14
G
&œ
thro'
0
48
0 1 0
2
œ
so
hum
2
0 2
ures
2
-
0 0 1 0
3
pa - la - ces
3
œ
ble, There's
2
0
1 1 2
3
the
œ
œ
0
world, Is
2
3
2
0 1 0
2
0
ha
- ll
0
0 1 0
œ
ne' - er
œ
0
3
roam,
2
2
œœ œ
with 0
0
œ us
3
A 0 1 0
œ
there,
2
œœ œ œ
œ
else - where. 0 1 0
3
œ
3
0
œ
0 0 1 0
home.
0
met
3
0 1 0
- ow
œœ œ œ 0 1 0
2
H
0
Seems to 2
like
œœ œ œ œ
œ
1 1 2
place
0
œœ œ
3 0
0 0 1 0 0
0
no
C
1
œ
we may
œœ œ œ œ œ œ
œœ œ œœ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ
C
œ
Though
1 1 2
H
skies
C
C
œœ œ œ œ
œœ œ œ œ
1 1 1 2 2
3
3 0 0
F
0 1 0
and
œ œ œœ œ
œ
from the
œ œ œœ œ 3 0 0
0 0 1 0
3 0
œœ œ œ œ œ œ
F
pleas -
0
3
Audio Track 1-25
0
3
œœ œ œ œ
it
2
3
œ 0
œ
Which seek
0 1 0
0 2
œœ œ œ œ 0 1 0
3
Be
3
œ
0 2
0
Flatpicking Essentials Volume 2: Learning How To Solo, Carter Style and Beyond
Home Sweet Home: Carter Style (con’t)
œœ œ
F
&œ 18
Ho
-
G
&œ
no
0
place
3 0 0
1
30
G
&œ Ev
0
1 1 2
œ like
-
œ
œ
ho
-
me,
sw
0
3 0 0
0
œ
1 1 2
2
3
œ
œœ œ
G
1
œ œ œœ œ -
er
1 1 2
œ œ œœ œ
home,
0
me,
3 0 0
œ
3
œœ œ
F
Ho
1
œ œ œœ œ
&œ 26
œœ œ
me, 1 1 2
1
22
œ
œ œœ
G
œ
ho
-
0
3 0 0
- eet
œ 0
œ
œ
me,
sw
0
2
G
0
œ
so
hum - ble
œ
œ
2
3
2
œ
The - re's
0
œ
sw -
eet
0
no
0 C
œ
œ
home
3
place
2
0 1 0
0
œ
0 1 0
2
œ
sw -
eet
0
œœ œ œ œ
no
place 0
3
Flatpicking Essentials Volume 2: Learning How To Solo, Carter Style and Beyond
2
2
œœ œ
œ
0
0 1 0
2
œœ œ œ œ
œ home
3
like 0 1 0
Be 0 1 0
2
œœ œ œ
3
œ
home.
C
0 1 0
0
3
œ
œ
The - re's
0 1 0
2
like
H
0
œœ œ
0 1 0 2
0
- eet
3 0
œ
œœ œ œ œ
œœ œ œœ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ
C
œ
0 1 0
H
2
C
C
3
œ œœ
œ
2
The - re's 3 0 0
œœ œ
C
˙
home. 0 3
0
œ
it
0 2
3
Ó Ó
49
John Hardy: Carter Style
6
John
0
3
2
car - ried two 0 1 0 2
0 1 0 2
2
3
West Vir - gin - ia
17
3 3 0 0
Lord,
50
H
0 2
L 0
0 1 0 2
3
3
0
3 3 0 0
3 3 0 0
0
You
4
3
2
line
You
0 1 0 2
3 3 0 0
3 3 0 0
0
3
2 3 2 0
2 3 2 0
ought to seen John
0
0
0
H
0 2
0
2 3 2 0
2 3 2 0
seen John
0
2
0 1 0 2
3
He
3 3 0 0
2
2
0
2
man 0 1 0 2
0 1 0
3
2 3 2 0
2 3 2 0
0
Lord,
0
Har - dy getting a - way
0
H
3
2
0
3
0
H
1 2
0 2 0
0 1 0 2
2
P
on that
G
2
L
Har - dy getting a - way,
0
0
3
shot down a
He
0
man
3 3 0 0
0
2
3 3 0 0
C
D
ought - a
desp-erate lit - tle
2
day
0 1 0 2
2
2
G
a 0 1 0
G
ev - ery 0 1 0
was
he
3
0
3
guns
G
12
Har - dy
L
C
3
L
C
1
T A B
Audio Track 1-26
0
3 3 0 0
0
3 3 0 0
Flatpicking Essentials Volume 2: Learning How To Solo, Carter Style and Beyond
John Henry: Carter Style
½
When John
½
2
sit - ting on
11
0
16
pa
2
3
ham - mer and
a
3 3 0 0
3 3 0 0
0
0
0
3 3 0
2
0
2
0
2
0
Lord
3 3 0
2
3
lit - tle 3 3 0 0
0
2 3 2 0
2 3 2 0
0
0
steel
2
0
3
that
0
0
0
2 3 2 0
0
2
0
3 3 0 0
2
picked up
will
3 3 0 0
0
0
Flatpicking Essentials Volume 2: Learning How To Solo, Carter Style and Beyond
be
the death of
2
be the death of
me
2 3 2 0
2 3 2 0
0
2
G
0
a 3 3 0 0
0
0
2
D
2
G
will
0
0
3
2
3 3 0 0
he was 3 3 0 0
0
Ham - mer
boy,
2
ba - by
Well he
Ham-mer 3 3 0 0
Said 3 3 0 0
3 3 3 3 0 0 0
3 3 3 3 0 0
knee,
lit - tle piece of
2
3 3 0 0
D
pa's
-
a
0
2
Lord,
3 3 3 3 0 0
3 3 0 0
0
me,
was
L
his
3 3 0 0
Hen - ry
0
6
0
G
1
T A B
Audio Track 1-27
0
½ 3 3 0 0
3
3
½ 51
Buffalo Gals: Carter Style
C
1
Buffalo
T A B
5
Buffalo
3 C
9
52
0 1 0 2
was
1
0
2
0 1 0 2
come out 2
2
0 1 0 2
0
down
the
2
pretty
little
gal
I
1
0
0
0
0
tonight And
2
0 1 0 2
2
0 1 0 2
street,
C
chanced to 2
2
0 1 0 2
C
F
2
0
F
walk - ing
2
2
meet,
2
0
3 3 0 0
G
tonight,
0
Gals, won't you come out
I
13
Gals, won't you
0 1 0 2
3
Audio Track 1-28
Come
out
0
G
dance 0
tonight,
3
by the light 3 3 0 0
3
of the
0
Down
the
0
3 3 0 0
0
3
street,
G
Oh,
she
was
fair
0 1 0 2
G
0
0
3
to
0
out
3
3
As 0 1 0 2
2
0 1 0 2
C
down
the
0
see.
3
0 1 0 2
3
F
tonight.
0 1 0 2
3
2
2
moon.
C
come
C
C
street,
0 1 0 2
A
0 1 0 2
3
Flatpicking Essentials Volume 2: Learning How To Solo, Carter Style and Beyond
Lonesome Road Blues: Carter Style
½
6
Well I'm
½
T A B
going down
0
2
3
C
goin' down
that
11
3
road
feel - in'
0
0
bad,
3
2
feel - in' 3 3 0 0
H
0
0
0
Lord 3 3 0 0
3
0
2
3 3 3 3 0 0
H
0 3
3 3 3 3 0 0
H
0 2
3 3 3 3 0 0
0 0
0
3
3 3 0 0
0
3 3 3 3 0 0
C
Well I'm
0
that 0 1 0 2
3
2
0
feel - in' this - a
2
2
goin' down
3 3 3 3 0 0
0 3
ain't goin' to be
Well I'm
0 2
D
And I
H
3 3 0 0 3
3 3 3 3 0 H 0
H
3
bad,
0
bad,
0 1 0 2
Lord, 3 3 0 0
feel - in'
0
0
road
G
G
0 1 0 2 3
road
3
that 3 3 0 0
0
3
0 1 0 2 3
G
1
Audio Track 1-29
0
2
0
0 G
É
way
3
0
½ ½
Partial Chords: So far I have been using full chordal strums whenever I have inserted a strum. Coming up on the page after next I provide you with a higher octave arrangement of “Cripple Creek” that uses two note “partial chords”. When you play Carter style arrangements and the melody moves up to the G or B strings, these two note chords will help you maintain the full sound. These two note “chords” are also called “double stops.” We
will work with them extensively later on in this book and they will be explained in more detail at that time. Their use in “Cripple Creek” will be a first introduction to the use of these “double stops.”
Flatpicking Essentials Volume 2: Learning How To Solo, Carter Style and Beyond
53
Wildwood Flower: Carter Style C
½ 1
5
C
hair fair
Oh,
13
54
0 1 0
with 0 1 0 2
0
0 1 0 2
1.
1.
F
the
em
0 1 0 2
0
0
0 1 0
and
2
1 1 2 3
0
3 3 0 0
eyes
with ses
-
min red
er - ald
3
look
2
like
blue.
0 3
2
0
The
3
0 1 0 2
0 1 0 2
3
3 0 0
2
black so 0
le
eo
2
0 1 0 2
2
0
and
the
2
0 1 0 2
myrt
-
pale 0 1 0 2
ving ies
3
-
the
3
3
wa lil
C
0 1 0 2 C
0 1 0
hue
0
3
3 C
and the
And
2
gles and
2
the
0 1 0
2
G
-
1
3
my so
2
2
With
G
0 1 0
3
3
twine ro
3
3
lea - der
2
0 1 0
bright
3
I'll
2
3
9
½
T A B
Audio Track 1-30
2
É 3
0 1 0 2
½ ½
Flatpicking Essentials Volume 2: Learning How To Solo, Carter Style and Beyond
Cripple Creek: Carter Style, Lower Register
Goin’ Pull
3 3
0
0
2
5
G
Goin’ up Goin’ up
H 0 2
C
G
up Cripple Creek, goin’ on a run my brit - ches to my knees
0
T A B
G
1
3 3 0 0
3 3 0 0
3 3 0 0
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Goin’ Goin’
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on the run a whirl 3 3
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Goin’ Up Cripple Creek to have some fun Wade old Cripple Creek as I please
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Cripple Creek, goin’ Cripple Creek in
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Audio Track 1-31
up up
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Cripple Creek to have some fun Cripple Creek to see my girl
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Cripple Creek: Upper Register
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Flatpicking Essentials Volume 2: Learning How To Solo, Carter Style and Beyond
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55
Banks of the Ohio: Carter Style
I
T A B
asked my
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a
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love H
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Flatpicking Essentials Volume 2: Learning How To Solo, Carter Style and Beyond
East Virginia Blues: Carter Style
½
I
½
was
H
3
0
0
0 0 1 1 H 0 2 2 0 2
F
0 0 1 1 0 2
2
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li
in East Vir - gin - ia
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Audio Track 1-33
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I did
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met 2
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Repeated Eighth Notes: When you work through the arrangement of “Banks of the Ohio” on the previous page, you will notice that I’ve inserted some two-note duration repeated eighth note phrases here and there. When the majority of the song is based on quarter note timing, these repeated eighth notes add a little flavor to the mix. We will work with this concept in much more detail when we address playing tremolos later in this book.
Flatpicking Essentials Volume 2: Learning How To Solo, Carter Style and Beyond
57
Keep On The Sunny Side: Carter Style
½
Intro
1
0
3
6
dark
0
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and
a
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trou - bled side
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of
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Audio Track 1-34
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sun - ny side we
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al - so
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ma - y
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view
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Flatpicking Essentials Volume 2: Learning How To Solo, Carter Style and Beyond
Keep On The Sunny Side: Carter Style (con’t) 21
C
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sun - ny
3 29
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the
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will
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the
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of
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brigh - ten
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Flatpicking Essentials Volume 2: Learning How To Solo, Carter Style and Beyond
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day,
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on
life
of
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ev' - ry
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Keep
25
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Bury Me Beneath the Willow: Carter Style
½
O -
h,
2
sl
-
-
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3
b
ill - ow
ee - ping
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and
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per
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the
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1
haps
she'll
weep
for
60
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me
e
will
know
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me
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ur - y
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C
weep - ing will - ow
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b -
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neath
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the
am
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Audio Track 1-35
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1 1 2 3
S - o
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Flatpicking Essentials Volume 2: Learning How To Solo, Carter Style and Beyond
Yellow Rose of Texas: Carter Style
½
yel - low
There's a
½
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3
1
0 3
Tex - as
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That
I
am going to
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knows her
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sold- ier, on - ly
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like to broke my
heart H
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me.
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ev - er
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see
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oth - er sold-ier
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rose of
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Audio Track 1-36
cried
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so
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Flatpicking Essentials Volume 2: Learning How To Solo, Carter Style and Beyond
2
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left her
It
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ne-ver more will
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when I
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61
As you can see, you are working a pattern from the low E string to the high E string. Once you reach the end of the exercise as shown (measure 24) continue playing the pattern until you reach the low E string again, and then you can move back in the other direction. Start at a slow tempo and then gradually work your way up to faster tempos. There are several variations on this theme that you could create on your own. The pattern I’ve shown is eight notes repeated, jumping to the next string with four, then the next string with four. As a variation, you could cut that in half and play four notes on the first string, jump to the next string and play two notes, then the next string for two notes, etc. This kind of exercise helps improve right hand accuracy and dexterity. Give it a try! After you have worked with the tremolo exercise, turn the page and play through the four arrangements that I have provided in this section. The first is a tremolo version of “You Are My Sunshine.” I follow that with a tremolo version of “Worried Man Blues,” which uses some longer tremolo runs. Next I’ve arranged a tremolo version of “Bury Me Beneath the Willow” that is based on a recording of this tune by the Delmore Brothers (they called the song “Bury Me Under the Weeping Willow”). It is not an exact transcription, but it is similar. The Delmore’s, and other performers of their era, used this technique extensively. Since this technique is very straight-forward, I think that you should have a good understanding of it after working with just a couple of songs. After “Bury Me Beneath the Willow” I’ve provided a variation of “You Are My Sunshine” that includes “neighboring notes” to help spice up the tremolo technique. We will talk more about “neighboring notes” later, but as the name implies, they are notes that are one half step up or down from the melody note. Take a look at the second variation of “You Are My Sunshine” and you’ll get a feel for this technique.
Tremolo OK, now that you have worked with a number of Carter style arrangements—some simple and others adding hammer-ons, slides, pull-offs, and bass runs—it is time to start learning some new techniques. Following our chronological development of the style of flatpicking, the next technique I’d like to add to your “bag of tricks” is the tremolo. Many of the early lead guitar players in country music borrowed this technique from mandolin players, in fact, George Shuffler calls this technique the “quick-wrist mandolin style.” The technique is very straight-forward and involves filling up the holes between melody notes by simply repeating a melody note, in eighth note repetition, until the you reach the next melody note. Below I’ve tabbed out a purely tremolo arrangement of the first four bars of “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” to demonstrate the technique. Of course, using the technique this much sounds very monotonous, however, you get the idea. If you’ll look back and the previous page, you will see that in my arrangement of “Yellow Rose of Texas” I put a few two-note tremolos in the arrangement (measures 5, 6, and 9). That will give you an idea of how the technique can be used sparingly. I have provided a couple of more examples in this section that utilize the technique to varying degrees so that you can have some practice with it. But first, take a look at the tremolo exercise on the next page. This is a warm-up exercise that you can use to get your right hand accustom to playing repetitive eighth notes. Set your metronome on a slow tempo and play along with the click. The “X” figure in the notation means that you are muting the strings during this exercise. Simply place your left hand across the strings so that the strings are muted. Practicing right hand exercises with muted strings helps you focus completely on the right hand without left hand distraction.
Audio Track 2-01
Twinkle, Twinkle, Tremolo
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T A B 62
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Flatpicking Essentials Volume 2: Learning How To Solo, Carter Style and Beyond
Tremolo Exercise
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9
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Flatpicking Essentials Volume 2: Learning How To Solo, Carter Style and Beyond
etc.
63
You Are My Sunshine: Simple Tremolo Style Version
6
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U 3
Flatpicking Essentials Volume 2: Learning How To Solo, Carter Style and Beyond
Worried Man Blues: Simple Tremolo Style Version
« 1
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a wor - ried man
sing
to 0
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but 4
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Audio Track 2-03
sing
a wor - ried song
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Flatpicking Essentials Volume 2: Learning How To Solo, Carter Style and Beyond
65
Bury Me Beneath the Willow: Tremolo Style
4 &4 Ó
œ
œ
Ó
0
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T A B
.. . .
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Audio Track 2-04
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œ 3 3 0
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Ó Ó
Neighboring Notes: Hanging around on any given note too long can sound a bit repetitive. One way to vary the tremolo technique is to toggle back and forth on neighboring notes instead of repeating the same note over and over again. A neighboring note is, as the name suggests, a note that is just one half step, or one fret, away from a melody note. Check out measure two of “You Are My Sunshine” on the next page. Instead of repeating the E note, as I did in the last arrangement, I alternated the E note with an E flat note. I also added a neighboring note hammer-on in measure eight and a chromatic walk-up in measures ten and fifteen. 66
You will notice that in this arrangement I also spiced things up a bit by moving the tremolo note around more, as in measure six. In that measure I played two-note tremolos while following the outline of the F chord. There are many various ways that you can modify the tremolo to spice up your solo arrangements. They are fairly simple to add between melody notes and easy to execute. As an exercise, go back to the previous section of the book and take some of those Carter style arrangements and spice them up with a few tremolos here and there. Have fun with it!
Flatpicking Essentials Volume 2: Learning How To Solo, Carter Style and Beyond
You Are My Sunshine: Spiced-Up Tremolo Version
C
1
T A B
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Flatpicking Essentials Volume 2: Learning How To Solo, Carter Style and Beyond
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67
A Little Boogie-Woogie In the first section of Volume 1, when I discussed the history of flatpicking, I talked about the short lived “boogie-woogie” era in country music. During the late 40s and early 50s “boogie” tunes became popular and actually played a role in the development of rock and roll. The technique used to play boogie-woogie tunes on the guitar involves both the tremolo and neighboring note techniques that we have been working on in this section, so let’s give it a try. I’ve arranged a tune called “Boogie-Woogie Blues” that is similar in structure to a lot of the boogie songs of the early 50s. I’m using the same 12-bar blues template that you worked with in Volume 1 and you will notice that I’m also using the
arpeggio bass lines that we worked with in Volume 1. So the structure of the song should be familiar to you, now we just add the tremolo and neighboring notes concepts to the bass lines and you’ve got your boogiewoogie! Play through the tab below. You’ll notice that in some phrases I’m using the tremolo (repeating notes) and in other places (like measures four and six), I’m using the neighboring notes. You can use either alternatively. Have fun with this and then if you feel inspired, throw a little boogie line into some of your arrangements!
Boogie-Woogie Blues
1
T A B 5
G
L 3 3
0 0 2 2
3 3 2 2 0 0
2
3 3
2
0 0 2 2
3 2 0 3 2 0
2
G
L L L 2 2
0 0 2 2
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0 3 3
D
C
2 2
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G
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Audio Track 2-06
2 2
4 4
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0 0
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2 2 3 3
4 4
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Flatpicking Essentials Volume 2: Learning How To Solo, Carter Style and Beyond
Double Stops The next technique that we are going to work with is the “double stop.” The term came from the idea of fretting (or “stopping”) two notes at the same time. Basically, that is all there is to the technique. Instead of playing just one note, you play two notes at the same time. Usually, and for the majority of examples shown in this volume, the two notes that you play are taken from the notes of the chord you are playing at the given time. The arrangement of “Bile The Cabbage Down” shown below demonstrates the use of double stops. You will notice that for each phrase of the song I’m holding down two notes of the chord. For the G chord I’m using the “F shape” G chord at the third fret (see diagram on the next page). For the C chord I’m using the “A shape” C chord at the third fret (see diagram on the next page). For the D chord I’m using the standard D shape. In the last measure I move to two open notes in the G chord. “Bile the Cabbage Down” is one of the tunes in the beginner fiddler’s repertoire that they will first use to explore the idea of playing double stops.
If you’ll take a look at the diagrams shown on the next page you’ll see that I’ve put together various double stop notes that can be used with the various chord shapes. I’ve simply laid out the chord shape and sequentially played notes that are on adjacent strings. For now, that is all you have to do to execute a double stop. When you play the melody note also strike through an adjacent note in the same chord. The technique allows two notes to ring out and gives a fuller sound to the arrangement. There are many ways to get creative with double stops using slides and passing notes when moving from one chord to the other. We will explore various examples of those techniques in this course. For now, in order to familiarize yourself with the use of double stops, play the tunes that are tabbed out on the following pages and get a feel for how to use double stops in the arrangements of simple songs.
Bile The Cabbage Down: Double Stop Style
G
C
1
Bile them
T A B
3 4
3 4
Cab - bage
3
3 4
3 4
G
down
3
5 5
boys 5 5 5
Turn them
5 5
5 5 5
3 4
5
G
C
on - ly 3 4
3 4
3
song
that
3 4
3 4
3
Audio Track 2-07
G
I
can
5 5
5 5
5
sing
Is
5 5
5 5
5
hoe - cakes
3 4
3
3 4
D
3 4
3
bile
them
3 4
3 4
3 2
cab - bage
Flatpicking Essentials Volume 2: Learning How To Solo, Carter Style and Beyond
3 2
round
3
D
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3 2
boys The
3 3 2
3 2
3 2
3
G
ÉÉ
down 0 0
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0 0 69
Finding Double Stops in Chord Shapes
Audio Track 2-08
A shape C chord
C chord
3rd Fret
ÉÉ
ÉÉ
1
0 1
T A B
1 0
ÉÉ 0 2
ÉÉ 2 3
ÉÉ 3 3
½ ½
ÉÉ
ÉÉ
3 5
ÉÉ
5 5
É É
5 5
½
ÉÉ
5 3
½
3 3
F shape G chord
G chord
3rd Fret
1
ÉÉ 2 3
ÉÉ 0 2
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ÉÉ
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D Chord
1
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70
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3 4
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F Chord
ÉÉ 3 2
ÉÉ 2 4
ÉÉ 4 5
ÉÉ 5 5
É É 5 2
É A É 1 1
ÉÉ 1 2
ÉÉ 2 3
ÉÉ 3 3
É É 3 1
½ ½
Flatpicking Essentials Volume 2: Learning How To Solo, Carter Style and Beyond
You Are My Sunshine: Double Stop Style
C
1
T A B
0 1 0 0 0 2 2 H
3
3
0
0 1 0 0 0 2 2 H
0 2
3
1 1 2 3
1 2
1 1 2 3
1 2
1 2
1 0
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Flatpicking Essentials Volume 2: Learning How To Solo, Carter Style and Beyond
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Buffalo Gals: Double Stop Style
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Flatpicking Essentials Volume 2: Learning How To Solo, Carter Style and Beyond
Wildwood Flower: With Double Stops in B Section C
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Flatpicking Essentials Volume 2: Learning How To Solo, Carter Style and Beyond
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Worried Man Blues: Carter Style and Double Stops
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Flatpicking Essentials Volume 2: Learning How To Solo, Carter Style and Beyond
Streets of Loredo: With Double Stops
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Flatpicking Essentials Volume 2: Learning How To Solo, Carter Style and Beyond
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75
Crosspicking “Crosspicking” is a guitar technique that was popularized by George Shuffler in the late 1950s when he was playing with the Stanley Brothers. Regarding his use of the technique, George said, “Back then all there was on lead guitar was Maybelle Carter and Merle Travis, and neither one of those styles fit what the Stanleys sang. They sang those slow, mournful mountain songs with long dwells at the end of a line. That crosspicking roll filled in when they stopped to swallow and get their breath. Little single string stuff just wouldn’t fill it in. The crosspicking roll would make it full and solid.” The basic technique consists of holding a chord shape and then “rolling,” similar to a banjo roll, across three consecutive strings. The first figure below on this page depicts the basic crosspicking pattern played across muted G, B, and high E strings. Muting the strings helps you focus on the right hand technique. You’ll notice that I’ve indicated two different right hand picking patterns. The first is the pattern used by George Shuffler and others who have played with Ralph Stanley’s Clinch Mountain Boys, including the current guitar player James Alan Shelton. This “down-
down-up” pattern gives crosspicking a certain feel that George felt fit the Stanley sound. The second pattern is the standard alternating pick pattern that you learned in Volume 1. I suggest you try both and see which one feels best to you. One is not “better” than the other. Below the muted string exercise you will see I’ve provided the same right hand pattern while holding a C chord with the left hand. On the top of the next page I’ve provided a C chord crosspicking exercise that expands the pattern, in three string sets, across all six strings. If you are not familiar with the crosspicking technique, or feel as though you need some practice with it, I suggest that you work with these exercises while your metronome is clicking at a fairly slow tempo. At the bottom of the next page I’ve provided a comparison of the first few bars of “Wildwood Flower” played first in the Carter style and then in the crosspicking style. The crosspicking roll simply replaces the Carter style strums. If you’ll play through both of these lines you can get a feel for how the crosspicking technique provides a fuller sound. You’ll notice that the roll is adjusted to adapt to the changing melody line. In the second measure the melody is on the G string, so the roll moves across the G, B and high E strings. Then when the melody moves to the D string in the second measure, the roll moves to the D, G, and B strings.
Muted String Crosspicking Exercise
1
Pattern 1: Pattern 2:
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Flatpicking Essentials Volume 2: Learning How To Solo, Carter Style and Beyond
Audio Track 2-15
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On the pages that follow I’ve provided you with crosspicking arrangements to several of the songs that you have practiced in the Carter style section of this book. Play through these arrangements and study how they compare to their Carter style counterparts. After you have practiced these songs using the crosspicking
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technique, work to see if you can take some of the other Carter style arrangements that you have learned and play them in the crosspicking style. You don’t have to convert every measure to crosspicking, but adding the crosspick roll here and there can help spice up any arrangement.
Flatpicking Essentials Volume 2: Learning How To Solo, Carter Style and Beyond
77
Banks of the Ohio: Crosspicking C
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Flatpicking Essentials Volume 2: Learning How To Solo, Carter Style and Beyond
Wildwood Flower: Crosspicking
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Flatpicking Essentials Volume 2: Learning How To Solo, Carter Style and Beyond
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Home Sweet Home: Crosspicking
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Flatpicking Essentials Volume 2: Learning How To Solo, Carter Style and Beyond
Oh, Susanna: Crosspicking C
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Flatpicking Essentials Volume 2: Learning How To Solo, Carter Style and Beyond
san - na, H
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Oh, Susanna: Crosspicking (con’t) C
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Alternate Crosspicking Patterns While the standard “forward roll” crosspicking pattern that I described for you at the beginning of this section is the most prevalent, there are many other right hand “rolling” patterns. You may have noticed in a few of the songs in this section that I didn’t always stay with the forward roll. Sometimes you might have to modify the roll in order to hit melody notes at the right time. We will spend some time later in this course on many
different right hand rolling patterns, including patterns that roll across more than three strings. In order to give you a head start on a couple of these alternate patterns, I’ve provided two below—the reverse roll and the alternating roll. Try the muted string exercise with these two rolls. After you get a good feel for these two rolls, hold down a C chord and practice these rolls across all six strings as you did earlier with the forward roll.
Reverse Roll
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82
Flatpicking Essentials Volume 2: Learning How To Solo, Carter Style and Beyond
Pioneer Techniques Summary At this point we have covered the main techniques that can be attributed to the “pioneers” of flatpicking, namely: Carter style, bass runs, hammer-ons, slides, pull-offs, tremolo, double stops, alternate strum patterns, and crosspicking. Although the early pioneers did use other techniques that involved neighboring notes, scale runs, drone notes, and fill licks (techniques that we will discuss in the next section of this book), these techniques were not used as widely by the pioneers as they were by those players who would follow in the “heroes era.” Before you move on to the next section of the book, I highly recommend that you become very comfortable with all of the steps used in creating a solo to a vocal song that I outlined earlier in this book. After working through all of the examples that I have provided thus far, I suggest that you try to work the six steps outlined below with vocal songs that you have yet to learn. Again the steps are: 1) Select a (Simple) Song 2) Learn the Chord progression 3) Learn the Basic Melody (melody burnout!) 4) Simplify the Melody 5) Find the Carter Style Arrangement 6) Embellish the Carter Style Arrangement using all of the techniques that have been presented thus far in this book. The more you practice working through these six steps, the easier it will be for you to learn how to create your own arrangements to progressively more difficult chord changes and melody lines and the easier it is going to be for you to learn how to improvise. If you learn all of the tunes that I have provided in this book, and then learn 10 or 15 more on your own, you will have a repertoire of around 50 vocal tunes that you can participate in at your local jam session or perform for your family and friends! And if you’ve spent enough time with the melody and enough time learning a basic Carter style version, I guarantee that you will be able to create your own new arrangements and improvisations to all of these songs in no time at all. Regarding a method to use to begin creating your own arrangements of these songs, I recommend that once you have memorized (muscle memory, not just head memory!) a Carter style arrangement of a song as I have written it in this book, you then open the book to
that song and work through it measure-by-measure to change what I have written here to something that you come up with one your own. It doesn’t have to be a big change. If I’ve presented a measure that has a couple of melody notes combined with a couple of strums, then change those strums to tremolos, or double stops, or maybe even a crosspicking roll. Start by making small changes. If you go through the whole song and only change three or four measures, that is just fine. Learn this new version and play that for a while. Later, go back and change 2 or 3 more measures and then learn that version. If you go through this exercise enough, you will eventually find that every time you play that song it will start coming out differently. You will naturally start to mix and match the various versions that you’ve created. As always, take this whole process very slowly. If you try to change the song too much, or try to memorize changes to too many songs, you will get confused. I recommend that you start the process by just focusing on one song. This will be your one song that you work on to come up with new versions. Work on it a little bit every day. The reason you see “You Are My Sunshine” show up so much in this book in various forms is that for about a year I used this song as my “new version” song. Meaning, I spent a little bit of time playing that song every time I picked up my guitar and I’d try to play it a little bit differently every time I went through it. By the way, the reason I picked this song to be my “new version” song was because I’d also selected that song as my first “melody burnout” song. I spent time learning that melody in every key and at every position on the neck I could think of. By the time I got around to inventing new versions, I knew that melody inside and out and that made all the difference in helping me create various arrangements of that song. So, please, don’t rush through the “melody burnout” phase of the process. In the next section of this book I’m going to provide you with a short introduction to a few techniques that we will continue to explore in more detail in the next volume of this series. In the next volume we will work on instrumental tunes and I feel like you will have an easier time learning these techniques in the fiddle tune context if you’ve first had an opportunity to work with them in the context of vocal tune arrangements.
Flatpicking Essentials Volume 2: Learning How To Solo, Carter Style and Beyond
83
Neighboring Notes, Scales Runs, and Drones In this section we are going to take a look at neighboring notes, scale runs, and the use of drone notes. You had a brief introduction to neighboring notes in the tremolo section and we also used them on the boogie-woogie tune. If you need to, look back at the arrangement of “You Are My Sunshine” in the tremolo section to refresh your memory. Also take a look at the “Boogie-Woogie Blues.” Neighboring notes tend to spice up an arrangement because they provide “tension.” Because you are moving just a half note away from a melody note, or a scale note, you are most likely going to be playing a note that is not in the scale and thus it “just doesn’t sound quite right.” But that is OK if the tension is followed by “release.” The tension provides the listener’s ear with something that is not expected because their ear expects to hear melody, or at least a note that naturally fits with the melody (notes of the scale). When an unexpected note reaches the listener’s ear it causes the “tension,” but then if you follow the unexpected note with a melodic note, or phrase, the tension is “released” and the listener relaxes again. Scale runs, as this name implies, are simply runs that move up or down the musical scale. The notes don’t necessarily need to stay in an exact ascending or
descending order, they can be mixed up in sequence. However, they generally move in one direction or the other, or move in one direction and then back the other way. Take a look at the “Clarence White Excerpt” shown at the bottom of this page. This is a phrase from one of Clarence’s solos for the song “Shuckin’ the Corn.” In this phrase Clarence uses both neighboring notes and scale runs. In measure two he toggles back and forth between the A note and the A# note on the B string. He is playing against a G chord. The A note is in the G scale, but the A# note is not. The toggling back and forth on those two notes provides a bit of that tension and release. In the third measure Clarence executes a scale run, walking up the G scale playing D, E, F#, G, A, and B. Then he starts back down the scale, playing the A and G notes. In measure four Clarence does something really cool, which he did a lot. He used what I would call a “neighboring note phrase,” meaning he took the phrase defined by the last four notes of measure 3 and moved that whole phrase up a half step. This is a really nice trick and if you listen closely to Clarence White’s playing you will notice that he liked to use this technique. You’ll also notice in this excerpt that Clarence uses another scale run in measures five and Audio Track 2-20
Clarence White Excerpt (from “Shuckin’ the Corn”):
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Flatpicking Essentials Volume 2: Learning How To Solo, Carter Style and Beyond
“Salty Dog Blues” using Clarence White Lick
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down blues,
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six to help him move from the D chord to the G chord. Just for fun, I’ve arranged a solo to the verse of “Salty Dog Blues” using Clarence’s “neighboring phrase” idea so you can see it in context. In measure 3 I walk up the A scale, then I insert Clarence’s phrase in measure 4. In this section I’ve arranged a couple of other tunes that will give you some practice with the more conventional use of neighboring notes, but keep the idea of the “neighboring phrase” in mind because we will explore that again in later volumes of this course. On the top of the next page I’ve provided a couple more examples of scale runs taken from a transcription of a Doc Watson solo to the song “Beaumont Rag.” Doc is the first acoustic guitar player who really used a lot of scale runs in both his rhythm accompaniment and his solos. In the first example Doc repeats the same C scale lick two times in a row. He first moves down the C arpeggio (G to E to C) and then moves up the C scale going from C, to D, to E, to F, to G, to A. Then he moves back down the C arpeggio, using the G and E notes to connect back to the root C, and then he moves back up the same scale, this time ending on the G note. This is a nice little phrase that fits perfectly
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in the context of the tune. The second example is a descending run in C, but you’ll notice that it does not go directly down the C scale. The descending part of the run moves down the C scale from B, to A, to G, to F, to E, to D, but then instead of resolving to the root C after the D note, Doc throws in the A and B notes to throw in a very short ascending run before resolving to the C note. Combining pieces of scales in various ascending and descending sequences and combinations is an art that you will want to study and master in flatpicking. Doc is the first master of this technique and everyone who has followed after him uses scale runs in their flatpicking. I’m merely introducing this concept to you here in this book. We will explore it in more depth in future volumes. By the time you complete volume 6, you should be very adept at creating and using your own scale runs. To give you a little bit of practice with neighboring notes and scale runs, I’ve arranged a version of “She’ll be Coming Around the Mountain” in this section that makes use of these two techniques. Play through this arrangement and you’ll begin to get an idea of how to add neighboring notes and scale runs to your solos.
Flatpicking Essentials Volume 2: Learning How To Solo, Carter Style and Beyond
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Doc Watson Excerpt 1:
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The third topic to discuss in this section is the use of drone notes. A “drone” is a sustained or repeated sound. If you use one drone note in a solo, it will typically be the root note of the chord you are playing over. If you use more than one drone note you will typically use notes from the chord. We will not address chord drones in this book, but we will address them in volume 3. In this book I will discuss two ways of using drone notes. The first is using the drone as a single picked note and the second is using the drone in double stops. Take a look at the example above that is titled “‘Yellow Rose of Texas’ Excerpt.” This is a phrase from my arrangement of “Yellow Rose of Texas” that I provided earlier in this book. The excerpt is from measures 8 and 9. You’ll see that the melody notes in these two measures are spaced a quarter note apart. When you have a long string of melody notes that are a quarter note apart, it doesn’t leave you a lot of room to add any of your own notes without changing the melody a bit. However, if you simply throw in a G note drone between each melody note (because we are playing over a G chord), as shown in measures 3 86
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and 4 of the example above, you can add a bit of spice to the measures while maintaining the integrity of the melody. Drones can also be used in conjunction with the melody notes if you play the drone string as a double stop with the melody note. Take a look at my arrangement of “Buffalo Gals” in the key of G that appears in this section. I’ve added a drone to the descending line in the B section (measures 9 & 10 and 13 & 14). When you have a descending line in a melody and can play it on one string, adding the double stop drone helps fill out the sound. In this section I’ve also included an arrangement of “Wabash Cannonball” and two arrangements of “You Are My Sunshine.” I’ve added neighboring notes, scale runs, and drone notes here and there in these arrangements, along with various other techniques, so that you can gain more experience with all of the techniques that you’ve learned so far in this book. Have fun with these arrangements and, as always, work to come up with some arrangements of your own using all of these new techniques.
Flatpicking Essentials Volume 2: Learning How To Solo, Carter Style and Beyond
She’ll Be Coming Around the Mountain
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After playing through this arrangement of “She’ll Be Coming Around the Mountain” shown above, compare it with the Carter style arrangement that appears on page 26. If you compare the two, you will see how I was able to place the runs and licks into the arrangement without really changing the melody of the song. The
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melody is still very recognizable, but the solo is more interesting. However, since I am moving farther away from the Carter style (harmonic content), I am getting in that zone where I may need another rhythm instrument to pull off a solo like this one. Keep that in mind when adding single string runs.
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Buffalo Gals: Using Drone Strings in the B Section
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Flatpicking Essentials Volume 2: Learning How To Solo, Carter Style and Beyond
Wabash Cannonball
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Flatpicking Essentials Volume 2: Learning How To Solo, Carter Style and Beyond
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You Are My Sunshine: Simple Embellishments in C
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Flatpicking Essentials Volume 2: Learning How To Solo, Carter Style and Beyond
You Are My Sunshine: Another Variation in C
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91
Licks and Soloing Licks are basically familiar, or sometimes cliche, phrases that you insert into your musical arrangements. Hopefully you will learn to tastefully insert them at appropriate moments and not overuse them. The dictionary defines cliche as “a phrase or word that has lost its original effectiveness or power from overuse.” The same can be true of musical phrases. If you overuse them, they will loose their power or effectiveness. If you always keep the words “melody is king” in your consciousness when arranging solos or improvising, then you can avoid becoming a “lick player.” A lick player is someone who simply inserts a string of memorized licks over chord changes with little or no regard for melody. It would be analogous to someone talking to you in conversation and stringing together a bunch of cliche phrases. They wouldn’t be saying anything that you could understand or have any meaning. A well placed familiar phrase or saying in a conversation can have power and meaning, however, if it is overused or used in conjunction with other phrases with no apparent connection between them (meaning a fluid stream of thought or subject in conversation, or a melody line in music), then nothing is being said that is of interest to the audience. When jazz player’s talk about someone’s solo they will praise good players by saying “he was really saying something” and they will critique bad players by stating, “he wasn’t saying anything.” In a musical arrangement the melody and the lyrics define your subject, the licks and phrases you insert are your personal thoughts on that subject. Think about that when you are arranging your solos. If you are simply stringing together licks, then you really are not addressing the subject at hand. If you are stating the melody and inserting your own licks and phrases in a way that keeps the melody recognizable and maintains the feeling of the song that is conveyed in the melody and lyrics, then you are “saying something” and you are contributing to the musical conversation. All that to say that licks can be good tools, but if they are overused, or used inappropriately, then they can annoy your audience and the musicians who you are performing with. Before we move on I’d like to quote Charles Sawtelle on the topic of creating solos on the guitar. Charles said: “I think about what the song is about. If I am going to record a song, I want to know what the words are. I want to know what the song is about. 92
A lot of times you will hear a sad song played in bluegrass and the instruments are not paying attention to the words.” “Sometimes when I am teaching students, I will hear this real jazzy banjo chorus on a sad song like “Memories of Mother and Dad.” Iʼll ask, “Well, what is this song about?” They say, “I donʼt know.” I say, “Have you ever listened to the words?” Theyʼll say, “No.” This is a really sad song about a guy losing his mom and dad and it is a true story about Bill Monroeʼs father and mother. It contains the line, “There is a little lonesome graveyard, on these tomb stones it does say, on motherʼs ʻgone but not forgottenʼ on dadʼs ʻweʼll meet again someday.ʼ ” If you go to Rosine, Kentucky, to the family graveyard, their tombstones are there and that is what they say. It is heavy.” “A lot of times people are not aware what the song is about. I try to think what the song is about and what it is saying and how can the guitar keep saying it without interrupting the flow.” “I also try to be conscious of what the other instruments are doing. If the banjo just did this real hot lick thing, I will either take up where he left off and keep the hot lick going, or I will make it different so that it will stand out a little bit and make it more interesting to the audience. I try really hard to sound good even though I donʼt always succeed. But my goal is to try to play stuff that sounds good, is a little different, and gets the message across.” “I also tell my students that if they work out a really difficult break that can be played no faster than 115 beats per minute and then get on stage and the banjo player gets excited and rips it off at 130, donʼt try to take that break because they are going to flop. People out in the audience arenʼt going to say, “He almost pulled it off.” They are going to say, “He doesnʼt sound very good.” But if he plays something simpler that he can play, then the audience is going to think it was pretty good. I try hard to be really aware of that. If there was a solo that I might usually crosspick, I wonʼt always do it that way if the tempo is too fast on stage. Iʼve got a limit to the speed that I can crosspick and I know what it is. I would rather sound good than try to go for the hot lick.” “When I am improvising I try to play a solo that sounds good. I try to get good tone. I think
Flatpicking Essentials Volume 2: Learning How To Solo, Carter Style and Beyond
about the chords and the tempo. Iʼll also think, “Well, did I play this lick in the last five songs?” If so, Iʼll try something else. I try not to repeat licks. I also try to be conscious of where the capo is, meaning that if we play a few songs in a row in D, I might play one of them in open D and then the next in C position with the capo at the second fret in order to provide some variety. So I am conscious of that stuff. I canʼt always pull off a perfect solo, but I try my best.” I think that if you keep the melody out front, if you keep the lyrics in mind, if you listen to what the other players are doing, and you do not continually repeat yourself, then using familiar licks can work out for you. We are going to talk more about licks in the next volume when we discuss fiddle tunes, then again in volume 5, which covers the stylistic flatpicking of various guitar heroes. In that volume we will present C Lick 1
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the heroes’ signature licks and phrases, those that help define their style. So throughout this course we will be adding to your “lick library” and I recommend that you start collecting a bunch of licks that you like. Just use them sparingly and you’ll be fine. At the bottom of this page I’ve presented seven licks in C and a couple in G. Of course, all of the C licks can be transposed to other keys and I suggest that you do that as an exercise. In fact, as an example of that I made G lick 2 the exact same lick as C lick 7 so that you can see how one lick can fit in different keys. The first four C licks are simple, short fill licks that you can use to fill up space between melody notes. The first three can either stay in C by resolving to the C note on the A string, or they can move to G by resolving on the open G note on the G string. Try them both ways. The fourth C lick can stay in C or it can move to D by resolving on the open D note on the D string. Try this one both ways as well.
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Flatpicking Essentials Volume 2: Learning How To Solo, Carter Style and Beyond
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The next three C licks are longer licks that represent typical phrases that flatpickers like to use. I’ve shown them here because I’ve inserted them in some of the arrangements that appear on the pages that follow in this section. The first G lick is one of those handy G fill licks that you will hear a lot in bluegrass, so I thought I’d throw that one out there for you to try. As I said before, the second G lick is simply a repeat of C Lick 7, but in the key of G. I don’t want to overwhelm you with licks or phrases in this volume because we will have plenty of time to explore licks in future volumes. However, I wanted to give you a brief introduction to licks here in this volume so that you could begin to see how they are used to fill in gaps in melody lines. Below, and in the pages that follow in this section I have arranged guitar solos for a few songs and I’ve
tried to consciously employ all of the techniques that we’ve covered so far in this course. We will start below with “Jimmy Brown the Newsboy.” You’ve worked with this song earlier in this book, but here I’ve added a few fills licks (measures 4 and 16), bass runs (measures 6, 8, 9 and 14), a neighboring note phrase (measure 12) and various slides and hammerons. You will notice that I’ve maintained a strong sense of the melody and the arrangement still has a Carter style flavor, but I’ve spiced it up here and there with the other techniques. You may note that the fill licks in measures 4 and 16 are the exact same fill lick, but they are in different keys. Sometimes using the same fill lick in various places in a song can be a good thing if you do something slightly different with it each time. In the last volume Audio Track 2-27
Jimmy Brown the Newsboy
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Flatpicking Essentials Volume 2: Learning How To Solo, Carter Style and Beyond
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we talked about the idea of using a run or fill a couple of times to allow it to sink in to the listener’s brain, and then by using it again, but changing it slightly or taking it in a new direction the listener has both familiarity and variety in the same arrangement. If you take a look at the arrangement of “The Crawdad Song” that I’ve presented above, you’ll notice that I use the exact same fill lick in measures 2, 6, 10, and 14, however, in measure 2 I resolve to a D note in a C chord; in measure 6 I resolve to a G note and a chord change to G; in measure 10 I resolve to an F note and a chord change to F; and then in measure 14 I play the lick over a G
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chord, play the B note instead of the E note on the last beat, resolve to a C note, and change to the C chord. So, although I use the lick 4 times in a 16 bar solo, I’m moving in a different direction each time and thus it provides both familiarity and variety to the listener’s ear and (I hope) doesn’t sound monotonous. On the next page I have provided another solo for “The Crawdad Song.” This one moves farther away from the melody than the arrangement above. Both of these solos are taken from a recording of this song that Brad Davis and I made for the FGM Records project called Docfest. The solo that appears above
Flatpicking Essentials Volume 2: Learning How To Solo, Carter Style and Beyond
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The Crawdad Song 2
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is the first solo of the recording. The rule of thumb when arranging various solos in the same recording or performance of a song is that the first instrument that takes a solo should stay close to the melody of the song, but then subsequent solos can move a little farther away since that first solo, and the vocalist, has set up a strong sense of the melody in the listener’s ear. I started off this solo with a long lick in C. The lick in measures 2 and 3 was presented a few pages ago as C Lick 5. From there I kept the arrangement rather sparse. I have a cool little syncopated lick in measure 7, a neighboring note lick in measure 10, an outline of the F arpeggio in measure 11, and then a little C run at the end. Even though I strayed away from playing the exact melody, I think I kept enough of it in tact so that the song is recognizable. 96
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On the next page I’ve provided two variations of “Nine Pound Hammer.” In the first I’ve used a few licks, but otherwise I’ve kept it very sparse. In the second arrangement I’ve thrown in some crosspicking, a double stop, a bend, and a popular D moving to G ending phrase. We will discuss bends in more detail later in the course. To execute this bend simply place your finger on the string and push it upward along the fret just after you pluck the string. I end this section with two famous Carter Family tunes, “Storms Are On the Ocean” and “Old Spinning Wheel.” With “Storms Are On the Ocean” I keep it plain and simple, mostly employing the use of double stops and crosspicking, but you’ll also find a couple drones and some tremolo. With “Old Spinning Wheel” I get a little more adventurous by trying to throw a little bit of everything in there.
Flatpicking Essentials Volume 2: Learning How To Solo, Carter Style and Beyond
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Flatpicking Essentials Volume 2: Learning How To Solo, Carter Style and Beyond
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Flatpicking Essentials Volume 2: Learning How To Solo, Carter Style and Beyond
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Fiddle Tunes Fiddle tunes, and other instrumental tunes, are going to consume our attention in the next volume of this series, however, I wanted to give you a brief introduction here just to demonstrate that you can still use the Carter style technique in your fiddle tune playing. In fact, all of the steps that you have used in this volume to come up with solos to vocal tunes can also be applied to fiddle tunes. Let’s take a look at the song “Arkansas Traveler.” Like many fiddle tunes that are typically played as instrumental numbers, “Arkansas Traveler” does have words. If you are learning a fiddle tune I suggest that you search the internet to find out if there are words to the song, knowing the words will help solidify the melody in your head. On the next page I’ve presented the words and melody for “Arkansas Traveler.” The first thing you may notice is that this melody is more “dense” than the melodies that we have been working with so far. That is why it makes a great instrumental tune on the fiddle. However, if you will work through the “simplify the melody” step, you will see that you can create enough holes in this melody to make a nice Carter style arrangement. See the Carter style arrangement that I came up with on the page that follows the melody page. You can see that I’ve taken out a lot of the melody notes in order to create space to play the strums and combine them with quarter notes, however, if you’ll play through the Carter style arrangement I think you will easily recognize the melody of “Arkansas Traveler.”
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As I mentioned previously, the “learn the melody” and “simplify the melody” steps can be very helpful in many ways and one of them has to do with jam session tempo. If you have learned a fancy arrangement of a tune that you can play in the privacy of your home at 120 bpm and you find yourself in a jam and the first person kicks of the tune at 240 bpm, you are not going to be able to play the fancy version you memorized. However, if you have learned the melody, and simplified melody, you should be able to handle the higher tempos without trouble. On the page that follows the Carter style arrangement of “Arkansas Traveler” I’ve provided a more singlenote style solo. I start off using a few Carter style strums, but them I move on to the single note stuff that is more indicative of fiddle tune guitar playing. See how fast you can play that arrangement, or one like it that you may already know, versus the Carter style arrangement. I think that you’ll agree that it would be much easier to pull of the Carter style arrangement at very high tempos. Plus, if the tempo is fast, the simpler arrangement will still sound full because the notes will be coming out so rapidly. After “Arkansas Traveler” I leave you with a simple arrangement of “Red Wing” that makes use of double stops in the A part and Carter style strumming in the B part. Work a bit with “Arkansas Traveler” and “Red Wing,” then see if you can apply all of the steps that you have learned in this volume to a few fiddle tunes that you may already know. Then you will be ready to tackle Volume 3!
Flatpicking Essentials Volume 2: Learning How To Solo, Carter Style and Beyond
Arkansas Traveler: Melody C
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Arkansas Traveler: Carter Style
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Red Wing
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Flatpicking Essentials Volume 2: Learning How To Solo, Carter Style and Beyond
Red Wing (con’t)
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Looking Forward If you have worked to learn all of the tunes that I have provided in this book you now have 35 new tunes. If you have done as I have suggested and tried to apply the steps and techniques you learned here to some of the tunes that I have not presented, then you are building yourself quite a good repertoire, and we are only on Volume 2! By the time you finish will Volume 3 you will probably have 75 or 80 tunes under your belt, and if you worked the course as I have suggested, you will have developed your own arrangements for all of these tunes! Whenever you develop your own arrangements, instead of memorizing someone else’s arrangements, you’ll find that those tunes stick with you longer, you are able to create variations easier, and you are able to improvise better. When the arrangement comes from your heart and your gut, instead of a printed page or a video, you are always able to put more of yourself in the solo and it always has more feeling and emotion. There are students who try to copy Tony Rice or Clarence White or Doc Watson, but they never sound exactly like those players. When you copy or mimic other people, there is always something missing because the solo is not an expression of you. The solo
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is an expression of you trying to copy someone else’s expression of who they are, so there is always something lacking. It is great to learn from everyone that you can, but then move away from it. If a little piece of what you learn from those other players comes out here and there in your playing, that is OK. However, if you work to combine everything you learn from all of your musical influences in a way that is new and unique to you, then the result is much more soulful and the audience is always going to feel that and respond. I know that I’ve beat this horse to death in this book, but please take time to come up with your own way of playing all of these songs. If you start with the chords and melody and then move through the steps and techniques that I’ve outlined in this book, I think you can have great success creating your own way of playing all of these tunes, and any other tune that you may want to learn. As always, if you have any questions about any of the material that is presented here, feel free to email me at:
[email protected]. Please put “Flatpicking Essentials” in the subject line so I will be able to identify your email in my in-basket. I’ll see you in Volume 3!
Flatpicking Essentials Volume 2: Learning How To Solo, Carter Style and Beyond
